Father of girl who died of bird flu now has
Father of girl who died of bird flu now has
virus The father of an 11-year-old Cambodian girl who died of bird flu this week has tested positive for the virus, health officials said on Friday. The girl contracted a fever, cough and sore throat on February 16 and died of the H5N1 bird flu virus on Wednesday, Cambodia's Health Ministry said in a statement.
This was the first bird flu death in the country in many years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for vigilance following the recent detection of avian influenza in mammals, but stressed that the risk to humans is low.
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authorities on Thursday took samples from 12 people who had come into contact with the girl.
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His 49-year-old father was the only one of them to test positive, although he was asymptomatic, they added.
health services are looking for the source of the epidemic. Wild birds were found dead on a lake near the girl's remote village. The disease is usually transmitted to humans through direct contact from birds.The WHO called for vigilance following detection of avian influenza in mammals earlier this month, but stressed the risk to humans is low. The latest infection is the 58th recorded case of bird flu in Cambodia since the first human case was detected in the country almost two decades ago. "Although this case is tragic in Cambodia, we expect that there will be cases of clinical illness with such a widespread infection," said James Wood, head of the veterinary department at the University of Cambridge, referring to recent outbreaks in birds.
"Of course, the virus needs to be closely monitored and monitored to see if it's mutated or recombined, but the small number of human cases hasn't increased significantly, and this single case by itself doesn't signal that the global situation is suddenly changing has changed .
million domestic poultry worldwide, many infected with the H5N1 strain, were culled.
The global epidemic is also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of wild birds.
The recent detection of the disease in several mammals, including foxes, otters, mink, sea lions and even grizzly bears, has raised concerns that humans are at greater risk.
According to the WHO, there have been more than 450 fatal cases of bird flu worldwide since 2003.
