Health care policy and administration

Health Minister Mam Bunheng announced yesterday he has proposed that a reserve budget be used to help victims of the mass HIV outbreak in Battambang province’s Roka village, as he vowed to strengthen health services across the country. Speaking at a press conference following questioning by ...

Over 470,000 units of unauthorised or expired drugs were confiscated during a crackdown on unlicensed medical facilities in Siem Reap City this week, according to provincial police. The inspections of health facilities started on Friday with city economic police working with the provincial health department to ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng has been summoned for questioning next week by the National Assembly’s health commission over the outbreak of HIV among villagers in Battambang province’s Ro­ka commune, the commission’s secretary-general said Friday. ...

In a small village in Cambodia’s west, a tragic tale of  international significance has caught the local authorities off-guard. An unlicensed doctor has been charged with causing an outbreak of HIV and murder after lax practices resulted in at least 201 people contracting the potentially ...

Plans for a universal health care system will be included in the 10-year strategy to strengthen Cambodia’s social welfare, according to a government official, as a new report reveals almost three-quarters of Cambodians lack any legal health coverage. The study, released this week by the International ...

After facing heavy criticism for the conditions inside its drug-rehabilitation centres, the Ministry of Health has said it will begin offering an alternative community-based approach at health centres nationwide by 2015. According to Chhum Vanarith, a secretary of state in the Health Ministry, the alternative ...

Cambodia’s Labor Ministry on Thursday awarded some of the best performing companies in the country for their work on HIV and AIDS education and prevention at workplaces. Labor Minister Ith Samheng handed over 124 awards to enterprises in a range of sectors, including the garment industry, ...

The risk of Ebola coming into Cambodia remains low despite a recent Ebola scare in Thailand, officials from the Ministry of Health’s Communicable Diseases Control said at a conference yesterday, while still noting that the Kingdom remains vulnerable to other, lesser-known diseases. CDC head Ly ...

Two of the major donors who have supported Cambodia’s highly successful fight against HIV/AIDS are set to make significant cuts to their funding, putting pressure on the government to increase its own spending, officials and experts said. Both the Global Fund, which has contributed more than ...

Abuse of women and children should be considered a public health concern, National Assembly Legislation and Justice Commission chairman Pen Pannha said Sunday. “Discrimination is a serious violation of human rights since it affects the welfare of women, hindering their full participation in social activities. ...

Siem Reap’s Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital, which has provided free medical treatment since 1998, has been transferred to the Ministry of Health, the Post has learned. ...

As world leaders vowed to dramatically step up the global response to the Ebola virus this week, the Cambodian government sought to reassure investors that they are making adequate preparations to contain an outbreak in the Kingdom. Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon yesterday, ...

A study by the International Labor Organization, the U.N.’s labor body, shows most Cambodian garment workers do not eat enough nutritious food and that, as a result, many are anemic and even underweight. Now, a pilot project will feed workers at five factories a free ...

Cambodian authorities are stepping up inspection efforts of vegetable imports along the border after Vietnamese produce shipped to the European Union was found to contain harmful bacteria, an official from the Kingdoms import inspection unit said yesterday. Vietnamese media reported last week said that the European ...

As the deadly Ebola virus continues to plague parts of western Africa, Cambodia has since August put in place detection measures at its international airports and border crossings to screen for several diseases. ...

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on Monday unveiled a five-year Integrated Nutrition, Hygiene and Sanitation project in Cambodia, which is estimated to cost 16 million U.S. dollars, according to a press statement from the U.S. Embassy to Cambodia. ...

A draft law regulating the purchase and consumption of alcohol in Cambodia will, if passed, set the country’s legal drinking age at 21 years old, according to officials involved with the legislation, which many see as a tool to fight excessive youth drinking and drunken ...

Researchers in Colombia have conducted a promising randomised trial of a vaccine for the dengue virus, a disease that affects thousands of Cambodians every year, according to results published in the September issue of The Lancet. ...

On Thailand’s border with Myanmar, also known as Burma, a malaria research and treatment clinic is stepping up efforts to eliminate a drug-resistant form of the parasite before it spreads abroad. Artemisinin medicines have been highly effective against malaria when used in combination with other drugs. ...

Recent flooding has claimed another victim, a child in Kratie province who drowned, bringing the total death toll to 30, Keo Vy, cabinet director at the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM), said yesterday. While water levels are declining across the 12 provinces affected by flooding, ...

Defense Minister Tea Banh on Wednesday denied that a kidney transplant training program at the Preah Ket Mealea military hospital is a secret, though he refused to provide details of the program, which police suspected earlier this week of being at the center of an ...

The Ministry of Defense’s account that an alleged kidney trafficking ring at its Preah Ket Mealea military hospital was in fact a fully legal training program in partnership with China’s Defense Ministry was met with questions and confusion Tuesday. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in ...

The death toll from lethal floods has climbed to 27, with more than 10,000 families across 12 provinces evacuated from their homes to escape rising floodwaters, according to a report from the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM). The report, released yesterday, also shows that almost ...

After a two-month investigation, police were confident enough to arrest and interrogate nine people on Saturday over an alleged kidney trafficking ring at the state-run Preah Ket Mealea military hospital, including its director Ly Sovann, a lieutenant general in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces (RCAF). But ...