Bird flu risk “under control”, say health experts

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...