Phnom Penh, June 24 (IANS) A 41-year-old woman from northwestern Cambodia’s Siem Reap province has been confirmed for H5N1 human avian influenza, raising the number of cases to seven so far this year, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

“A laboratory result from the National Institute of Public Health showed on June 23 that the woman was positive for H5N1 virus,” the statement said on Monday night.

“The patient has the symptoms of fever, cough, and dyspnea, and she is currently in critical condition,” it added.

According to queries, there were sick and dead chickens at the patient’s home and her neighbour’s homes, and the patient had been in contact with sick and dead chickens and cooked them for food five days before she felt ill.

Health authorities are looking into the source of the infection and are examining any suspected cases or people who have been in contact with the victim in order to prevent an outbreak in the community.

Tamiflu (oseltamivir), an antiviral drug to prevent the bird flu from spreading, was also given out to people who had direct contact with the patient, the statement said.

So far this year, the kingdom recorded a total of seven human cases of H5N1 bird flu, with five deaths.

From 2003 to date, there were 79 cases of human infection with H5N1 influenza, including 48 deaths in the Southeast Asian country, according to the ministry, Xinhua news agency reported.

Bird flu is very rarely contagious (spread from person to person), but there have been a few cases of spread between humans. None of these happened in the US. In almost all cases so far, human bird flu infections have come from contact with infected animals. But any time a human is infected, it’s possible that the virus could mutate to spread easily to other humans.

Humans can get bird flu if they come in contact with an infected animal’s body fluid, like spit (saliva), milk, respiratory droplets or poop (feces). You can breathe it in from small dust particles in animal habitats or get it into your eyes, nose or mouth after touching body fluids.

–IANS

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