PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP)
— Cambodia on Friday reported three new human cases of bird flu,
two of them fatal, in the first three weeks of this year. That's as many cases
as the Southeast Asian country reported in all of 2012.
The cases are among the first reported in 2013
for the virulent H5N1 virus, which the World Health Organization says
has killed 360 other people worldwide since surfacing in 2003.
WHO and Cambodia's health ministry announced
that a 15-year-old girl in a village in southeastern Takeo province and a
35-year-old man in central Kampong Speu province died after being
hospitalized with H5N1, better known as bird flu. An 8-month-old boy in the
capital, Phnom Penh, was treated and survived.
Cambodia reported three cases last year, all of
them fatal. Since 2005, it has recorded 21 cases, 19 of them fatal.
The disease remains hard for people to catch,
but experts fear it could mutate into a more deadly form that spreads easily
from person to person. So far, most human cases have been linked to contact
with infected poultry.
On Wednesday, international
scientists who last year halted controversial research with the deadlybird
flu virus said they were resuming their work as countries adopt new rules
to ensure safety.
An outcry had erupted when two labs — in the
Netherlands and the U.S. — reported they had created easier-to-spread versions
of bird flu. Amid fierce debate about the oversight of such research and
whether it might aid terrorists, those scientists voluntarily halted further
work last January.
Those scientists announced Wednesday they were
ending their moratorium now that health authorities have had time to determine
how they will oversee high-stakes research involving dangerous germs. Several
countries have already issued new rules.
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