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New bird flu cases found in two Cambodian villagers, one of them fatal, show no signs of human-to-human transmission, health officials in the Southeast Asian country said, easing fears of a public health crisis.
An 11-year-old Cambodian girl from a village in southeastern Prey Veng province died on February 22 at a hospital in the capital, Phnom Penh, shortly after tests confirmed she had Type A H5N1 bird flu.
The father tested positive for the virus a day after his death, but did not show strong symptoms and was released Tuesday from Prey Veng hospital where he was isolated, the country’s Health Minister said.
He was sent home after three negative tests. The two were the only citizens among more than two dozen tested who were found to be carrying the virus, the ministry said in a statement.
Bird flu, also known as bird flu, is usually spread among poultry but can sometimes spread from poultry to humans.
The detection of new infections in various mammals has raised concerns among experts that the virus could evolve to spread more easily among humans, potentially causing a pandemic.
The Ministry of Health said that an investigation determined that the father and daughter “had been infected from poultry in their village, and there was no indication or evidence that there was an infection from father to daughter.”
The conclusion that he was infected directly from birds was reached by experts from the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as their Cambodian counterparts, Ministry of Health spokesperson Ly Sovann told The Associated Press.
In an interview published Tuesday on the website of the scientific journal Nature, a Cambodia-based virologist said that the girl who died had been infected with a different bird flu virus than the one that has been spreading around the world for the past year and a half between wild and domestic birds.
WATCH | Explosive surge of avian flu hits global bird population:
Global bird populations are being decimated by deadly strains of avian flu, wiping out domestic fowl and killing wild birds. Some researchers warn that the virus could evolve to become better at infecting humans and potentially start a pandemic in the future.
First human H5N1 detection in Cambodia since 2014
Erik Karlsson, from the Pasteur Institute of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, was part of the team that tested the virus sample from the girl, and said it was a group of viruses found in chickens and ducks in the region. at least a decade. He is the first person in Cambodia since 2014 to be detected with H5N1.
He said it was unclear why the girl would have contracted the virus after so long without a case, but suggested it might be related to “many global changes in agricultural practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic that may have created the conditions for spillover.” “
“We know that, in Cambodia, the pandemic has increased the number of backyard poultry farms. Many people, for example tour guides, are unable to work and need to supplement their income and food sources for their families,” he said.
“All over the world, people are still struggling, which has led to changes in agricultural practices that can increase the risk of spills. And changes in people’s health, for example malnutrition or excess weight, can make people more susceptible to infection.”
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