A six-year-old girl from Kampong Chhnang province’s Kampong Tralach district died on Friday in the year’s second H5N1 fatality, Health Ministry and World Health Organisation officials said yesterday.

Morm Malay, deputy director of the provincial health department, said officials from the Health Ministry’s communicable disease control department had confirmed that Noy Makara had died of the virus, otherwise known as bird flu.

Noy Makara had fallen ill after eating the meat of a sick chicken, and her family had attempted to treat her with medicine and injections, he said.

“She did not get better and her family sent her for treatment at the Kuntha Bopha hospital on March 28, and she died on March 30,” he added.  

This was the first case of H5N1 influenza ever recorded in Kampong Chhnang province, he said.

WHO public health specialist Nima Asgari confirmed the death was the year’s second from H5N1, and said further details would be known after investigation.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mom Kunthear at [email protected]