CAMBODIA - Pandemic Preparedness

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CAMBODIA STEPS UP BIRD-FLU PRECAUTIONS ALONG THAI BORDER
August 6, 2006 (M&C News)

Phnom Penh -- Cambodia destroyed thousands of smuggled eggs and mounted a campaign to warn people against buying illegally imported poultry products, in the wake of new reported bird-flu cases in neighbouring Thailand and Laos, authorities said Sunday.

Meach Son, the Agriculture Ministry chief in the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, said his department had destroyed 5,000 chicken eggs Friday to try to prevent outbreaks of avian influenza along its borders.

Thailand and Laos both reported new cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of the virus in recent weeks.

'We have also made a proclamation to all the people not to eat eggs and chicken brought illegally from Thailand and have warned people engaged in this trade that we will close them down,' Son said by telephone.

The Cambodian crackdown on cross-border poultry trade and new efforts to educate people about the virus followed Thailand's confirmation of the second human death this year. Laos reported it had detected the virus on a farm last month.

Cambodia has recorded six confirmed human cases of bird flu, all of them fatal. Most of those occurred near its border with Vietnam.

However Thailand, traditionally an important supplier of poultry to Cambodia, has also been hard hit by the disease and Son said authorities on the country's Thai border were taking no chances.

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[Lyro]

CAMBODIA - Pandemic Preparedness

CAMBODIAN AUTHORITIES GIVE BIRD FLU ALL CLEAR, BUT REMAIN ON ALERT
September 2, 2006 (Monster and Critics News)

Phnom Penh -- Health authorities have ended a two-week observation period on three Cambodian communities where the H5N1 strain of bird flu was detected earlier this month, saying Saturday they were satisfied no humans have contracted the virus.

However, World Health Organization epidemiologist Megge Miller said the appearance of the virus in a season formerly seen as a lower-risk period meant that avian influenza must now be seen as endemic and officials must remain in a constant state of alert.

'When I say endemic, I mean that in the sense that it seems that it is now always present,' she said, adding that too little was known about the disease yet to be sure it was not capable of lying dormant in some bird populations.

She said ministry of health officials had tested more than 10 people after an outbreak in southern Prey Veng province was reported in ducks on August 14.

Two districts in neighbouring Kampong Cham province subsequently also reported the virus and more than 2000 ducks died there when farmers smuggled poultry out of the first infected area in an attempt to salvage their assets before they were culled.

Miller said the observation period for Prey Veng ended on August 26 and for Kampong Cham on August 29, taking in two incubation periods for the virus since its first detection, and all tests on humans had been negative.

Agriculture Ministry officials have said they will continue to observe poultry in the area for at least a month after the outbreak was detected.

'However, what this latest outbreak shows us is that we can't relax. We have to be on our guard all the time against this virus,' Miller said.

Cambodia has suffered six confirmed bird flu deaths, with the most recent being a 12-year-old boy in April.

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