Two linked clinical cases of avian influenza in Cambodia: what threat to public health in southeast Asia does this pose? | ||||
Microbes and Infectious Diseases | ||||
Article 11, Volume 4, Issue 3, August 2023, Page 773-776 PDF (681.83 K) | ||||
Document Type: Editorials | ||||
DOI: 10.21608/mid.2023.204080.1501 | ||||
View on SCiNiTO | ||||
Authors | ||||
Quan Khoi Nguyen 1; Andrew W. Taylor-Robinson 2 | ||||
1VinUniversity, College of Health Sciences, Gia Lam District, Hanoi 100000 Vietnam | ||||
2College of Health Sciences, VinUniversity, Gia Lam District, Hanoi, Vietnam Center for Global Health, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA | ||||
Abstract | ||||
Summary: • There is much uncertainty in predicting the next major incidence of influenza A • The source of recent clinical cases of A/H5N1 in Cambodia are unknown • A/H5N1 is highly virulent in farmed poultry and can crossover to infect humans • Human-to-human transmission would pose a significant public health threat • Regional pandemic preparedness in Southeast Asia is required to mitigate this risk Conclusion: Highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI H5N1), more commonly known as bird flu – is, as the name suggests – primarily a disease that affects birds, yet it can also infect mammals, including humans. HPAI is a persistent public health threat as a leading cause of severe respiratory disease. While the source of infection of the A/H5N1 isolate that caused the death of a child in Cambodia may never be determined unequivocally, this emergency event should sound a warning of what may be to come. With the virtue of hindsight, in all but a handful of countries the real time surveillance and early detection system in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic for control of community transmission was grossly inadequate and need of major overhaul. Striking a positive note, those hard-learnt lessons are now helping to ensure better outbreak preparedness and threat mitigation for a virulent strain of bird flu should it spread to, and between, humans. | ||||
Keywords | ||||
Avian influenza; H1N1; outbreak; pandemic preparedness; Cambodia | ||||
Statistics Article View: 330 PDF Download: 166 |
||||