PHNOM PENH - A 20-year-old man has died and 13 others are in hospital with flu-like symptoms after eating cooked chicken in Cambodia, Health Minister Nuth Sokhom said Tuesday.
He said blood samples had been taken from the patients to be tested for bird flu and initial results should be ready within 24 hours. It was not clear whether the dead man was being tested.
Meas Met, from an orphanage in the capital's Tuol Kork district, was admitted to hospital late Monday and died early Tuesday, the minister said.
"Thirteen other people from the orphanage were hospitalised with flu-like symptoms on Tuesday morning," he said, adding that they had all reported eating cooked chicken before falling ill.
Cambodian hospitals are already inundated with an unusually high number of children suffering from a strain of human influenza this season, with about 1,000 admitted in recent weeks.
The deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza has killed 39 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four in Cambodia since the outbreak began in 2003.
A global strategy aimed at controlling the virus within a decade was released on Tuesday by the United Nations and animal health experts.
07/05/2005 11:27 GMT