Cambodian May Have Died From Bird Flu

A Cambodian woman who died Thursday at a hospital in Vietnam is Cambodia’s first suspected human bird flu death, officials said Sunday.

A 24-year-old woman from Kiri Vong district in Takeo province fell ill about a week ago with a respiratory illness consistent with the symptoms of bird flu, said Dr Ly Sovann, head of the surveillance bureau for the Communicable Disease Department at the Ministry of Health. The woman raised chickens at her home.

San Vanty, deputy director general of the Ministry of Agriculture, did not know if the birds at that farm had been tested for bird flu.

The woman, who was five months pregnant, was transferred Wednesday to Chau Doc Hospital in Vietnam, Ly Sovann said. She died there the next day.

Blood samples from the patient are being analyzed by the World Health Organization and Viet­namese health officials in Hanoi, Ly Sovann said. He did not know when results would be available.

“We consider this case a suspected case” of bird flu, Ly Sovann said. However, health officials in Vietnam have not yet made the same declaration, said Sean Tobin, an epidemiologist with WHO in Cambodia.

Suspicion that the woman had died of bird flu is “a rumor we’re taking very seriously, but until we get some laboratory confirmation, we cannot say if this is bird flu or not,” Tobin said.

“I can say that this lady is not on their list of suspected or confirmed cases,” he said.

The woman is from the same province as the Phnom Tamao Zoo and Wildlife Rescue Center, where about 50 birds died of an unknown illness in December, zoo director Tin Livon said. Test results from the Pasteur Institute in France confirmed that one of the birds, a gray heron, had died of the H5 virus, but have not yet concluded that it was the N1 strain.

Tin Livon declined to comment on whether there would be mass slaughter of birds at the zoo.

The Ministry of Health has not quarantined the area around the woman’s home in Phnom Den commune, Ly Sovann said. The woman’s family and the doctor who treated her in Takeo have not been tested for bird flu, as none have shown symptoms of the disease, Ly Sovann said. He said that the Ministry of Health has asked them to monitor their symptoms and report any respiratory problems to health officials.

“What we are doing right now is just intense surveillance” of the surrounding area, Ly Sovann said. He did not know if mass killings were planned for birds near Phnom Den.

Officials from Takeo province could not be reached for comment Sunday.

Officials did not know on Sunday why the patient had been transferred to Vietnam, saying only that the woman’s condition had rapidly deteriorated in Kiri Vong district hospital.

The transfer “may have been on medical grounds, it may have been on the patient or patient’s family’s request. We’re not sure,” Tobin said.

Meanwhile, 350 kg of frozen quail meat confiscated from smugglers Thursday night were burned Friday evening in Kompong Cham district, Kom­pong Cham province, said Kong Chhoeun, director of the prov­ince’s agriculture department.

This is the second time that illegal bird products have been destroyed in Kompong Cham province since the government banned the importation of birds and bird products in January. Late last month, officials in Takeo destroyed 500 duck eggs smuggled from Vietnam through an unofficial border checkpoint.

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