The steady pace of human H5N1 avian flu infections in Cambodia continues this week, with the health ministry today announcing another new case, the country’s 15th of the year.
In a Facebook post, the ministry said the patient is a 6-year-old girl from Takeo province, according to a translation from Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news blog. The girl is hospitalized with symptoms that include fever, cough, and breathing difficulty. Cambodia’s National Institute of Public Health confirmed the case yesterday.
Sick and dead chickens in girl’s village and home
Takeo province is on Cambodia’s southern border. Investigators found that there were nearly 1,000 sick or dead chickens in the girl’s village over the past month, including at the child’s home, where there were 30 sick and dead chickens. Her mother had brought the dead chickens to cook shortly before the girl became ill.
Erik Karlsson, PhD, with the National Influenza Center and Pasteur Institute in Cambodia, said on X today that 7 of the 15 cases from Cambodia this year have been fatal, resulting in a case-fatality rate (CFR) of 46.6%. He added that since 2005 Cambodia has reported 87 cases, which include 50 deaths for a CFR of 57.5%.
Nearly all of Cambodia’s recent cases have involved contact with sick or dead poultry, and many of affected patients have had severe or fatal infections. The latest human cases have involved a reassortant (2.3.2.1e) between an older H5N1 clade that has circulated in Cambodia since 2014 and the newer clade 2.3.4.4b virus that is circulating globally. The rise in human cases began at the end of 2023 and has accelerated this summer, with 12 reported over the past 2 months.