The Min­istry of Health (MoH) of the King­dom of Cam­bo­dia has announced a con­firmed case of human infec­tion with avian influenza A (H5N1) virus. The case was a 10 years old female from Kam­pong Speu Province. She devel­oped symp­toms on 20 May 2012 and after ini­tial treat­ment at the vil­lage was even­tu­ally admit­ted to the hos­pi­tal on 25 May 2012 with symp­toms of fever and short­ness of breath. Infec­tion with avian influenza A(H5N1) virus was con­firmed by Insti­tute Pas­teur du Cam­bodge on 26 May 2012, how­ever, despite inten­sive med­ical care, she died on 27 May 2012. There are reports of recent deaths among poul­try in her vil­lage and the patient pre­pared sick chicken for food prior to becom­ing sick.

The girl is the twenty-first per­son in Cam­bo­dia to become infected with A(H5N1) virus and 19 have died from the dis­ease. The National and local Rapid Response Teams (RRT) are con­duct­ing out­break inves­ti­ga­tion and response fol­low­ing the national pro­to­col. In addi­tion, a pub­lic health edu­ca­tion cam­paign is being con­ducted in the vil­lage to inform fam­i­lies on how to pro­tect them­selves from con­tract­ing avian influenza.
(WHO 5/29/2012)