Bird flu kills Cambodian boy, infects Egyptian baby

The death of a boy of 12 in Cambodia and the case of a sick baby girl in Egypt underlined yesterday the threat posed to children by the bird flu virus.

In Europe, experts called for new precautions because cats, and possibly other mammals, can be infected and could spread the virus. Dr Albert Osterhaus, of Erasmus University in Rotterdam, warned that cats may help the virus to adapt into a more highly infectious strain in humans which could spark a pandemic.

H5N1 bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe and the Middle East in recent weeks, and has flared anew in Asia.

Germany said yesterday that tests had shown a form of H5N1 had spread to domestic fowl on a large farm in the eastern state of Saxony.

Britain has found bird flu in a dead swan in Fife, eastern Scotland, the BBC reported. It said preliminary tests had confirmed a case of the H5 strain of the virus. Further tests were being carried out.

Several European Union countries, including Germany, have reported cases of avian flu in wild birds, but most have managed to keep it out of domestic flocks. France, in February, was the first EU nation to report an outbreak on a poultry farm.

Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, but can infect people who come into direct contact with infected birds. It has killed 108 people since late 2003, according to the most recent figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Experts fear it will mutate into a form that passes easily from person to person, sparking a pandemic in which millions could die and crippling the global economy. Children who play outdoors in areas shared with backyard poultry are one of the groups most at risk.