According to the "Daily Mail" local time on February 24, an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia died of infection with the H5N1 avian influenza strain.
The unnamed girl lives in a village in southeastern Cambodia's Prey Vang province, where villagers held posters with photos of the girl to warn the outside world to strengthen precautions.
It is reported that the girl became ill about a week ago and was subsequently taken to a hospital in the capital Phnom Penh for treatment. According to a statement from the country's Ministry of Health, the girl, who had a persistent fever of 39 degrees Celsius, accompanied by cough and sore throat, died shortly after her diagnosis.
Health officials took samples from a dead wild bird in a nature reserve near the girl's home.
Another 12 people are also suspected of being infected with the H5N1 avian influenza strain, all living in Prey Vang province, and four of them have symptoms (similar to other flu, including cough, sore throat and fever). All 12 have been tested for the virus and are awaiting laboratory confirmation.
If the lab proves they are infected, it most likely means that the deadly virus H5N1 is spreading from person to person. Obviously, that's why things get global attention. Arturo A. Ahmed, an immunologist at Johns Hopkins University. Dr Arturo Casadevall, after learning the news, tweeted: "The key information is whether the 12 infected people were infected through contact with birds or through human-to-human transmission, which will be very worrying." ”
Cambodia has issued a warning advising the public not to come into contact with dead and sick birds. At the same time, they advise parents to keep children away from birds as much as possible, and not to collect eggs, clean cages or play with birds.
This is a graph of human infection with H5N1 over the past 20 years, which is not a large number on a global scale. Especially in the past 7 years, cases are even rarer. The World Health Organization has also concluded that the risk of human infection with avian influenza remains low, but they also said that this should not be taken lightly: "We cannot assume that this will always be the case, and we must be prepared for any changes." ”
Avian influenza, usually transmitted in poultry, was first detected in chickens in Scotland in 1959 and was not considered a threat to humans until 1997, but most human infections involve direct contact with infected birds. That is, if you stay away from live poultry, then the probability of infection is almost zero.
But now it seems that things may change, although this is the last thing people want.
Before what happened in Cambodia, it was also noted that bird flu had spread among mammals, which was also an unusual sign that the virus had changed.
Last October, 52,000 mink on a farm in Spain contracted bird flu after some mink ate birds infected with bird flu, were exposed to the virus and passed it on to their companions.
Just a few weeks ago, 716 sea lions in Peru were found dead from bird flu.
On the other hand, the poultry industry in the United States is also being hit by bird flu, and it has been going on for a year, which is also extremely abnormal. Since February last year, they have wiped out about 58 million poultry, including egg-laying hens, broilers and turkeys.
The cause of this long pandemic has also been found, "almost exclusively spread by wild birds". Although chicken farms are strictly guarded and various measures have been taken to prevent wild birds from touching poultry, it is still impossible to prevent them, and it is reported that the guano of wild birds will be carried by the wind to the vents of the barn, which in turn leads to the spread of the virus.