Avian influenza – situation in Cambodia - update 17

4 May 2005

The Ministry of Health in Cambodia confirmed today that a 20-year-old woman from Kampot province who died on 19 April in a hospital in Viet Nam, was the country’s fourth reported case of avian influenza.

The woman, a secondary school student, was from Kompong Trach district in Kampot province, the same district as the first case reported from Cambodia in February. Samples taken from the woman tested positive for avian influenza A/H5 virus by the Pasteur Institute in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.

Staff from the Ministry of Health, Cambodia conducted active case finding in the village where the woman attended school and also provided education sessions to the students at the school. The Ministry of Agriculture are conducting an investigation into poultry deaths in the area of the school.