A 15-month-old toddler who represented the 18th confirmed case of avian influenza in Cambodia this year has recovered and was released from Kantha Bopha hospital on Friday.

The little boy from Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district developed a fever on August 16, and was transferred a week later from private care to Kantha Bopha hospital, where he was treated with Tamiflu, a treatment administered in dire cases.

Dr Denis Laurent of Kantha Bopha confirmed yesterday that the toddler had been released after a 12-day hospital stay.

Though only 39 people have contracted H5N1 in Cambodia since the virus was first detected in 2004, it has proved highly fatal, especially among children. Of the 18 people to contract the virus so far this year, 12 have died.

The Ministry of Health is conducting investigations and public health lessons in the boy’s home village, and continues to urge people to “take special care” that children avoid contact with dead or sickened poultry.