In the aftermath of the death of an 11 -year -old girl in Cambodia, after she caught the disease, the World Health Organization judged the “worrying situation”.
by Delphine Roucaute
As avian flu is spreading in bird populations around the world, the H5N1 virus is increasing its risk of being transmitted to the mammals, including humans. In Cambodia, an 11-year-old girl died after catching avian flu, said the governmental health watch agency on Wednesday, February 22, before announcing that his father had also been diagnosed with, until then Without symptoms. Eleven other people who have been in contact with the girl are the subject of surveillance.
If the World Health Organization (WHO) still considered low the risk represented by the avian influenza epidemic for humans, it evoked a “worrying situation” on Friday. “WHO takes seriously the risk linked to this virus and calls for all countries to increased vigilance,” said Sylvie Briand, responsible for prevention of pandemics at the international organization. The family bond between the two cases accentuates concerns: is it a transmission between humans or two cases of direct contamination after contact with birds? “We necessarily wonder what happened: could the first case have transmitted the disease to other humans?” I said the epidemiologist, refusing to have any speculation before having received the results of the epidemiological survey carried out in the field.
This is not the first time that cases of human contamination by avian influenza have been reported. Since its emergence in 1996, the H5N1 strain, which is currently circulating very actively worldwide, has been at the origin of several human cases, but in a sporadic and without proven transmission between humans. This zoonotic risk appeared very early: in 1997, in Hong Kong, six people died of the disease. The slaughter of 3 million chickens made it possible to limit the epidemic. Since 2003, date of reappearance of the virus, WHO recorded 868 cases , including 457 dead, a lethal rate of 53 %. Several episodes have marked different regions of the world, in particular China, Indonesia and Vietnam between 2003 and 2009, Cambodia and Indonesia between 2010 and 2014, and Egypt throughout the period from 2003 to 2019. At the start of the year, a little girl was also contaminated in Ecuador but recovered, according to WHO. 2>
genetic abundance
“It has been years since the risk has been taken seriously,” explains Jean-Luc Guérin, professor at the National Veterinary School of Toulouse and laboratory director of the National Research Institute for Agriculture, the food and the environment (INRAE).
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