Mon Puthy's 23-year-old mother, Choeun Sok Ny, has no clue about the reason for her daughter's death. This is certainly a pointer that bird flu public education campaigns need more thrust, especially in the poor nations.
According to Miller, seven other people in the village are portraying symptoms of fever, but this is no cause for alarm. "They have a fever but no cough," Miller said. "We are keeping an eye on them. None requires hospitalization at the moment. It looks like another one of those isolated incidents. There aren't any alarm bells at the moment."
With the young girl's death, Cambodia's human death toll due to bird flu has risen to five ever since the virus first set foot, in this area, in late 2003. Cambodia still remains as the worst hit country with a high record of human deaths.
