Cambodia reports bird flu outbreak
Pastor Dale Morgan
Cambodia reports bird flu outbreak
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Saturday, August 12, 2006 Posted: 0746 GMT (1546 HKT)
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- Cambodia's Agriculture Ministry has
confirmed a new outbreak of bird flu in poultry in the country's
southeast, a ministry official said Saturday.
Kao Phal, director of the ministry's animal health department, said the
outbreak was the virulent H5N1 type of the virus.
It was detected Friday in Prey Veng province, which borders Vietnam, he
said.
The H5N1 virus, which re-emerged in Asia in late 2003, has killed at
least 138 people worldwide, including six in Cambodia.
The announcement came after the government ordered health officials to
be on alert for possible human cases of bird flu.
The alert followed recent outbreaks of the virus in poultry in
neighboring countries and two recent human deaths from the disease in
Thailand, a bird flu bulletin compiled by United Nations agencies said.
It said the Cambodian Ministry of Health has "called all provincial
rapid response teams to put them on alert and ask them to follow up with
hospitals and health centers" on suspected human cases of bird flu.
On Friday, Vietnam reported its first cases of bird flu in poultry since
December, sparking fears of a resurgence of the virus in the country,
which had been hailed for controlling its spread.
The U.N. bulletin said that since early this month, a Cambodian bird flu
telephone "hot line" had received more than 150 calls from people in the
countryside informing officials about dead poultry or asking for
information about symptoms of the disease.
It also said a daily one-hour radio call-in program about bird flu was
launched early this month on a local station.
The bulletin is published jointly by the World Health Organization, the
Food and Agriculture Organization and UNICEF.
The government has also enlisted Buddhist monks to help spread
information on the virus. Workshops will be held this month for monks
and other citizens at 2,538 pagodas in 11 provinces, the U.N. said
Wednesday.