The latest bird flu patient, a three-year-old boy announced on Friday as this year’s 14th confirmed human case, remained in serious but stable condition at Phnom Penh’s Kantha Bopha Hospital yesterday, a hospital representative said.

“We hope we can save him,” Dr Denis Laurent said, but he noted that survival is difficult to predict in severe H5N1 cases.

The government and World Health Organization said Friday that the Prey Veng province boy was taken to Kantha Bopha and treated with Tamiflu after he developed a fever, cough and shortness of breath earlier this month.

Several poultry had recently died in his village.