A four-year-old boy from Kratie’s Snuol district is confirmed to have the third case of bird flu in Cambodia this year, but is on the mend, the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization said yesterday.

The boy, from Sre Cha commune, was confirmed to be carrying the H5N1 virus on Friday, making it the second case of avian flu to hit Kbal Trach village this year, WHO communications officer Vicky Houssiere said.

He had come into direct contact with dead poultry six days before developing symptoms.

While a government-led investigation into the first reported case of avian flu this year revealed that 200 birds had mysteriously died in the village in mid-January, that number has now risen.

“We can’t know the exact number of poultry that were sickened in mid-January … but we estimate about 350,” Houssiere said.

At least 22 cases of bird flu were recorded in Cambodia by the Ministry of Health last year, more than previous years.