Avian influenza, also known as bird flu, claimed its third victim of the year on Sunday when a 10-year-old girl from Kampong Speu province’s Baset district died from the disease on Sunday.

According to a joint press release issued by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, the victim had “prepared sick chicken … prior to becoming sick” and there was “evidence of recent deaths among poultry in the village”.

Provincial health department director Or Vanthen told the Post yesterday that officials had been dispatched to the province to monitor and educate the villagers about the lethal virus.

This latest incident brings to 21 the number of documented cases of the disease in Cambodia since 2003.

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