# 5502
From IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks), which was founded in 1995 and is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, we get a report on Cambodia’s efforts to contain and control their recent outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu.
As of April 16th, Cambodia had reported 4 human infections with the H5N1 virus in 2011, all fatal.
Prior to that, Cambodia had reported 4 cases (all fatal) in 2005, 2 cases in 2006 (again, all fatal), and in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 they reported 1 case each year, with 3 of those surviving.
While four isolated cases does not a crisis make, this sudden uptick after four relatively quiet years has raised concerns that the virus might be on the ascendant again in Southeast Asia.
This update comes via IRIN.
CAMBODIA: Bird flu risk "under control", say health experts
PHNOM PENH, 18 April 2011 (IRIN) - Health officials in Cambodia stress that they have not let down their guard against H5N1, despite four fatal cases of human avian flu this year, and are confident the community-based detection, surveillance and containment model remains robust and effective.
"There is no cause for alarm," Chea Nora, a technical officer within the Emerging Disease Surveillance and Response unit at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Phnom Penh, told IRIN. "Even though Cambodia is the only country [in the Mekong region] that has had cases this year, H5N1 is well under control here."
The four deaths, in February and March, were the first reported cases of H5N1 in Cambodia since April last year and raised the number of cases in the country to 14 since 2005, 12 of which have been fatal, according to the communicable disease department at Cambodia's Ministry of Health.
Nora said it was important to note that the cases occurred in different areas of the country, that laboratory tests indicated the virus was neither mutating nor getting stronger, and that the avian flu season, which corresponds with the dry season in Cambodia, from November to May, is nearing its end.
However, he said interviews with villagers had revealed that some believed H5N1 was no longer a threat because there were no more radio alerts, which had been part of the national awareness campaign funded by USAID and the German government.
The fact that these four cases emanated from three separate provinces is reassuring in that there appears to be no evidence of community spread of the virus among humans.
By the same token, the fact that the virus has been acquired (presumably from infected chickens/ducks) in three provinces this year speaks to how widespread the virus apparently is in poultry.
While a few limited awareness campaigns continue, the message is often lost on a population to whom hunger, malaria, dengue, and diarrheal diseases take a much greater toll.
As this article points out, rising food insecurity in Cambodia (and around the world) probably increases the chances that families will consume sick or dying poultry rather than destroy them.
Although we continue to see isolated human infections around the world, for now H5N1 is primarily a threat to poultry.
The virus remains poorly adapted to human physiology, and despite ample opportunities in places like Egypt and Indonesia, only causes rare, sporadic infections.
The concern, of course, is that over time that may change.
And so the world remains at Pre-pandemic Phase III on the H5N1 virus, and we continue to watch for signs that the virus is adapting to humans.
