Experts say bird flu threat small despite Cambodian fatality

Health authorities in Cambodia say the father of an 11-year-old girl who died this week after contracting bird flu has tested positive for the virus but has not displayed any major symptoms. The girl, from a village in the southeastern province of Prey Veng, died Wednesday at a hospital in Phnom Penh shortly after tests confirmed she had Type A H5N1 bird flu. Bird flu, also known as avian influenza, normally spreads between sick poultry but can sometimes spread from poultry to humans. The recent detection of infections in a variety of mammals, including at a large mink farm in Spain, has raised concern among experts that the virus could evolve to spread more easily between people, but they say the risks are currently small.