First Cambodian swine flu case brings total in Kingdom to six

Photo by: Tracey Shelton
A traveller fills out a swine flu questionnaire at Phnom Penh International Airport on Thursday.

Written by Cheang Sokha and Christopher Shay
Monday, 29 June 2009

Likelihood of outbreak 'very small at this point', says WHO official

THE Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation have confirmed two new cases of influenza A(H1N1), commonly known as swine flu, including the Kingdom's first domestic case of the virus.

Sok Touch, director of the Communicable Diseases Control Department at the ministry, said a Filipino national and a Cambodian both tested positive for H1N1 on Thursday.

The Filipino was tested for the virus after showing flulike symptoms at the Poipet border. The Cambodian national, a 19-year-old woman, had been in contact with a person in Vietnam who later tested positive for the disease. The Ministry of Health said she was tested soon after she became ill.

There have been six confirmed cases of H1N1 in Cambodia. All six patients are receiving treatment in Phnom Penh.

Mostly mild
Nima Asgari, the public health specialist at the WHO, said the chances of a widespread outbreak in the Kingdom "are very small at this point".

She said the virus was proving to be mild in the vast majority of cases, with symptoms resembling those of normal flu.

Myanmar and Laos last week confirmed their first cases of the virus, and Thailand's Health Ministry confirmed the country's first swine flu deaths after a man and a woman died last week. Official figures show that Thailand now has had more than 1,200cases.