The confirmation last week that the H5N1 strain of avian influenza had claimed its first human victim in Cambodia has raised concerns about surveillance capabilities there and in nearby countries. The diagnosis was made not in Cambodia but in neighboring Vietnam, where the 25-year-old woman had sought treatment and died on 30 January. The Cambodian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the case on 5 February. Cambodian health authorities subsequently learned that the woman's 14-year-old brother had died earlier of an apparent respiratory disease now suspected to be H5N1, but his remains were cremated before any samples were taken.
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