Phnom Penh, March 1 The father of an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia who died from the H5N1 avian influenza has been discharged from hospital after testing negative for the virus three times, an official statement said on Wednesday.
The 49-year-old man from Prey Veng province's Sithor Kandal district was confirmed positive for the virus on February 23, a day after his daughter died, the statement said, adding that the man had recovered and was allowed to leave the hospital on Tuesday, reports Xinhua news agency.
"According to the research results, it was found that both of them contracted the virus from birds in their village, not from father to daughter or vice versus," it said.
The father and daughter were the first two human infections of H5N1 confirmed in the Southeast Asian country since 2014, according to the Ministry of Health.
Ministry of Health's Secretary of State and spokeswoman Or Vandine said on Monday that the bird flu situation in Prey Veng province was under control.
A total of 29 people, including 16 close contacts and 13 who displayed flu-like symptoms, tested negative for the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday that risk to general public from H5N1 virus in Cambodia "remains low" and that the virus does not infect humans easily and spread from person-to-person appears to be unusual.
According to the Ministry of Health, from 2005 to date, 58 cases of human infection with H5N1 have been reported in Cambodia, including 38 deaths.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor