By Jennifer Lilonsky (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Feb 21, 2013 03:49 PM EST
Tags Bird Blu

The death of a 20-month-old Cambodian boy marks the seventh case of a bird flu-related death in the country so far this year.

Bird flu, or the H5N1 virus, has become a serious threat in Camobia--especially to children.

The young boy came from a village where recent poultry deaths were reported, according to Cambodia's Health Ministry and the World Health Organization.

The 20-month-old bird flu victim from the southern Kampot province was the eighth Cambodian to be diagnosed with the virus and the seventh to die as a result of it.

H5N1 is normally spread between poultry, but the virus can sometimes be spread to humans who have no natural immunity against it. 

Thirty-two cases of the bird flu were reported last year, while 20 of those diagnoses resulted in fatalities.

China and Egypt are the only other counties that have reported bird flu cases: two non-fatal cases in China and one fatal case in Egypt.

News of the latest Cambodian death comes a week after The Cambodia Daily reported a sixth death in the country as a result of the H5N1 virus.

A 3-year-old girl was diagnosed with bird flu last Monday and died last Wednesday morning.

"When we found out that she had bird flu, it was already too late for her to get treatment. We couldn't save her," the girl's father Tun Sambath said.

Symptoms of the H5N1 virus include cough, fever, sore throat and muscle aches. Nausea, vomiting and diarrhea may also be present in some cases of the H5N1 virus. Conjunctivitis, a mild eye infection, can sometimes be the only sign of bird flu in a few cases.

(SOURCE)

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