Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced three more cases of the H5N1 virus. Two occurred in Egypt, with one of them being fatal, and the third report was from an H5N1-related death of a Cambodian girl. All three were exposed to dead or sick poultry.

According to reports of H5N1 infections in 2010 by the WHO, the overall picture of H5N1 in humans hasn’t changed because women have more serious outcomes than men and children.

The WHO has also profiled 48 different cases of H5N1 from 2010, and it turns out that each of them were sporadic, and the pattern of infection showed there was a seasonal peak for this strand of the flu virus from December to March.

In their reviews, most of the cases (29) occurred in Egypt, followed by Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Cambodia that all had nine or less. Most of the cases were in children or young adults, and the median age was 25 years old, which is higher than in previous years. Half of the 48 H5N1 victims died from the virus, but the death rate varied by country. Vietnam had the best rate with 28% dying.

“It is… important for animal health and public health partners to continue to work together to identify and manage common risks and to decrease human exposure at the human-animal interface, particularly in households and in live
-bird markets”, said the WHO.

An outbreak in 2006 killed 260 million birds and caused $20 billion in financial damage.