A Cambodian man who died this week has tested positive for a severe strain of bird flu, the government said yesterday, raising the country's death toll from the disease to two.
Test results from the Pasteur Institute in the capital Phnom Penh late Thursday showed that 26-year-old Meas Ran who died earlier this week had the H5N1 strain of bird flu, Deputy Agriculture Minister Yim Voeun Tharn said.
Deputy Health Minister Heng Tay Kry confirmed that Meas Ran tested positive for H5N1.
That strain of bird flu began ravaging Asian poultry farms in December 2003, and also has claimed 47 human lives from Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
Meas Ran, from southern Kampot province, died at a Phnom Penh hospital late Tuesday after falling sick with a respiratory illness.
A 25-year-old woman from the same province also died from the disease on Jan. 30 in neighboring Vietnam.
About 30 chickens raised by the man's parents in the province's Tram Sorsor village had died early this month, Yim Voeurn Tharn said.
Megge Miller, an epidemiologist with the UN. WHO, said that before Meas Ran fell ill, he had collected chickens that were dying around his house and plucked them.
"We think he got sick from plucking the chickens," Miller said.
Officials from the government, the WHO and the Pasteur Institute were inspecting the village and surrounding areas for further signs of the disease, she said.
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