Post Reply - 7th human Cambodia H5N1 case

Cambodia's MOH reports their 7th human H5N1 infection for 2024 - and the 2nd one in past two days - with the discovery that a 5 y.o. girl living in the same household as Saturday's case (who is reportedly mildly symptomatic) has tested positive for the virus. 

While we don't have word on the exact clade of these two most recent H5N1 cases, they are very likely the older 2.3.2.1c clade of H5N1, which predates the emergence of clade 2.3.4.4b and has been identified in 10 of the last 11 cases in Cambodia.

While Cambodia has an excellent reputation for reporting and investigating cases or clusters, it takes a bit of luck for these cases to be detected. Mild or moderate cases are more likely to go unrecognized, since the best chance for detection comes when a patient is hospitalized.

Of the 13 H5N1 cases reported by Cambodia over the past 18 months, only 3 have been in adults and all of them survived.  Among the 10 children infected - while several had mild symptoms -half (n=5) died.