Cambodia records second bird flu death in a week, third this year, after no cases since 2014

By SOPHENG CHEANG
Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A 2-year-old girl has become the second person in Cambodia to die of bird flu this week, and the third this year. The country’s Health Ministry announced that laboratory tests confirmed that the girl, who lived in the southeastern province of Prey Veng, died Monday with H5N1 avian influenza. The ministry had announced on Sunday that a 50-year-old man in a neighboring province also had died from bird flu. In February, an 11-year-old girl became the country’s first bird flu fatality since 2014. A global tally by the U.N.’s World Health Organization shows that from January 2003 to July 2023, there were 878 cases of human infection with H5N1 avian influenza reported from 23 countries, 458 of them fatal.