AN 11-year-old woman from Cambodia has died from hen flu - the primary particular person to die of the bug this 12 months.
Whereas hen flu usually impacts poultry and wild birds, it may be transmitted to mammals, together with people.
Fears have been raised in latest weeks as a result of "unprecedented" present outbreak, that has seen a variety of mammals - together with otters and foxes - contaminated since October final 12 months.
The woman, from the agricultural province of Prey Veng, in south-eastern Cambodia grew to become ailing on February 16, well being officers have mentioned.
She was identified with the bug on Wednesday afternoon, after experiencing a fever of as much as to 39C and coughing - she died shortly afterwards.
Well being officers have taken samples from a lifeless hen at a conservation space close to the woman's dwelling, the ministry defined.
Native residents have been urged to not contact any lifeless and sick birds within the surrounding space.
Solely 870 individuals have been contaminated with hen flu prior to now 20 years - and over half (53 per cent) of those died.
Physician Quinton Fivelman, chief scientific officer at London Medical Laboratory, is now calling on authorities's to step up precautions.
He mentioned: "We’re turning into used to outbreaks of the H5N1 pressure of avian influenza, commonly known as avian or hen flu, in UK poultry farms.
"We should not let familiarity imply we turn out to be content material with this case.
"The truth that it's now spreading to mammals throughout the globe exhibits we can not let our guard down in opposition to the unfold of this virus."
World main scientist on the WHO, Sir Jeremy Farrar, who was beforehand director of the Wellcome Belief, has mentioned the H5N1 avian virus posed the most important pandemic menace to the world after Covid.
“If there was an outbreak in Europe, the Center East, America or Mexico tomorrow of H5N1 in people, we would not have the ability to vaccinate the world inside 2023,” mentioned Sir Jeremy, chief scientist designate of the Phrase Well being Group at a press briefing in London final week.
There may be at the moment no preventative vaccine for the virus.
Sir Jeremy is now calling on Governments to start investing in testing all out there influenza vaccines in opposition to the H5N1 pressure.
“If there have been an H5N1 outbreak [in humans] we might a minimum of know that we had vaccines out there, which have been protected and efficient.
"And if it would not occur, you have not misplaced, since you’ve nonetheless acquired these [vaccines]," he mentioned.
Professor Diana Bell, an skilled in zoonotic illnesses from the College of East Anglia, echoed Sir Jeremy's feedback calling for analysis into a brand new jab.
"We should be proactive and never caught on the again foot once more," she informed The Solar.
"Many of the human deaths from this virus have been within the early 2000s - and there have been a number of instances in people just lately.
"However in fact, with a lot virus round, that might change in a short time," she added.
Chicken flu has solely ever been present in one particular person in Britain, when Alan Gosling, 79, a retired engineer in Devon, caught it from geese in his dwelling in December 2021.
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