BLOG 9 - Cambodia

China isn’t the only country currently dealing with a deadly strain of bird flu; Cambodia is fighting a H5N1 strain that is baffling experts a decade after the major outbreak that began in Asia. Currently this year eight people have died, including six children, regardless that over 13,000 chickens have been culled or died from the highly contagious illness.  Cambodia is also watching China’s new H7N9 strain that had not previously been transmitted from birds to humans, but now 7 have died from the flu. This is Cambodia’s worst outbreak ever, accounting for nearly a third of its 27 human deaths from H5N1 since 2005.  Experts believe that the country is very vulnerable because of how close proximity humans are to the chickens, and a high rate of transportation of birds. Most birds here are kept in rural gardens versus close confined areas. The people know about the bird flu but refuse to throw the dead birds away because they are poor. Officials are working diligently to prevent new cases to keep the spreading of H5N1 from traveling to other countries.

This is perfect example of why it is so important to educate the world. By educating the poor people, this bird flu could have already killed less people or even not even come about in the first place. People don’t understand how important sanitation is to keep from having a pandemic similar to that of SARS.  These people wouldn’t be so poor they couldn’t keep their birds in a healthy environment or had to eat the dead birds. The world’s mission should be to first handle the current outbreak and then educate the people so they can keep from having so many different strains of bird flu going around. We can see how there are much fewer cases of bird flu in the developed countries.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130409-cambodia-fights-bird-flu-surge

Natalie White

April 9, 2013

5:35 pm