An 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died of bird flu. She is the country’s first fatality from the virus in years, according to health authorities. The girl fell ill with a fever, cough and sore throat on February 16 and later died in hospital.
The test results confirmed that the girl from Prey Veng province had been infected with the avian flu virus. The disease spreads from birds to humans through direct contact.
The virus was also recently discovered in a number of mammals, including foxes, otters, minks, sea lions and even grizzly bears. This increased the concern that humans would also be more at risk.
“The recent spillover to mammals needs to be closely monitored,” the World Health Organization (WHO) chief said earlier this month. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that “the WHO currently assesses the risk to humans as low.” According to the WHO, more than 450 fatal cases of avian flu have been recorded worldwide since 2003.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.