Maternal and child health

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday noted a decline in the number of mothers breastfeeding their children and appealed for help reversing the trend. The Planning Ministry previously said the number of breastfeeding mothers dropped from 73.5 percent in 2010 to 65 percent in 2014. ...

The government has spent more than $5 million to support female garment workers who delivered babies during the first nine months of the year. The National Social Security Fund yesterday said that from January to September, 55,180 workers who delivered 55,543 babies received money through the ...

The contribution of midwives to Cambodia’s maternal and infant health was praised by the government as the Kingdom celebrated the National Day of Midwife on Sunday. Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a sub-decree in 2008, designating May 5 as the National Day of Midwife – ...

The Kantha Bopha Hospitals founded by Swiss paediatrician Dr Beat Richner, who passed away last year aged 71, has reported a drop in the infant mortality rate last year. “The mortality rate among hospitalised children was 0.23 per cent, while in 2017, the mortality rate ...

Speaking during an annual workshop in Siem Reap province – Review on Child’s Health and Progress of Early Essential Newborn Care (EENC) Implementation in Cambodia – Kumanan Rasanathan said the mortality rate among children under five declined last year to 29 per 1,000, compared to ...

The production of Nutrix, a new fish-based wafer snack, was launched in Phnom Penh on Monday to assist in the fight against “severe acute child malnutrition” in Cambodia. The Nutrix facility is the first of its kind in the Kingdom and only the second in ...

The Health Ministry has urged parents who suspect their children to be suffering from dengue infections, to immediately send them to state-run hospitals for treatment. The call follows the death of 13 children due to dengue fever over the last eight months. ...

Kantha Bopha hospitals have treated almost 17 million children and pregnant women at a cost of $632 million, the organisation said, as it celebrated its 25th anniversary last week. ...

Women in the armed forces will receive a $200 bonus when they give birth to a child, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced yesterday. Addressing a graduate ceremony, Mr Hun Sen said female public servants have received a baby bonus since 2006, but mothers in the armed ...

The Alliance for Conflict Transformation on Saturday published a report into the challenges faced by children working on the streets of Phnom Penh, many of whom are unable to attend school and suffer multiple health problems. ...

A team of researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that the loss of dense forest in Cambodia is associated with higher risk of diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, and fever in children. ...

During the first six months of this year, the hospitals recorded $7.7 million in private donations from Switzerland, compared to $7.4 million during the first six months in 2016, according to Laurent.   ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered the government to draw up a plan to fund the country’s popular Kantha Bopha children’s hospitals on Monday, four months after the long-serving director of the foundation that runs them resigned. ...

France has pledged nearly $400,000 to set up maternal health and early childhood services, including child care centers, at a dozen garment factories across Cambodia, the French Embassy said on Wednesday. ...

Doctor Beat Richner, the prominent Swiss-born doctor credited with resurrecting the Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospitals – which have treated millions of patients free of charge since 1992 – stepped down from his more than two-decade role of managing the hospitals, citing a serious illness. ...

The government yesterday announced a total ban on the collection and export of human breast milk, after it emerged poor women had been earning cash through the trade. ...

Health officials have urged people to take care when buying food beyond its use-by date or suspected to be chemically contaminated after more than 60 students in Takeo province became ill from eating noodles. ...

The Cambodian government and UNICEF yesterday released results of a clinical trial on new locally produced food supplements to tackle the country’s persistently dismal malnutrition figures, with at least one of the two products proving effective.   ...

Cambodia’s first lady appealed to civil servants and health workers to improve efforts to reduce maternal and child deaths in conjunction with the National Day on Maternal, Newborn and Child Health today. ...

Although infant mortality rates have dropped dramatically over the past 15 years, a new report in the journal Healthcare has identified significant shortcomings in newborn care in Cambodia.   ...

Marie Stopes International Cambodia said yesterday it will look to strengthening partnerships instead of accepting US federal funds after it forfeited its rights to USAID funding in order to continue providing legal abortion services.This was in response to US President Donald Trump’s executive order issued ...

Health Minister Mam Bun Heng has issued a directive for all private maternity clinics and hospitals to establish neo-natal intensive care units – which treat seriously ill newborns and premature infants – in order to further reduce maternal and child deaths in the Kingdom.​ ...

On the day 55-year-old Leangkim Theng was selected as a village health volunteer, she was not sure she could do it. The work required her to educate women on maternal and newborn health in Serei Sokha village of Kratie province. While she did not feel she ...

The government of Japan has agreed to provide a $134,526 grant to PH-Japan (PHJ) – a Japanese NGO working to improve Cambodia’s healthcare system – the embassy announced yesterday. According to an embassy press release, PHJ will use the money in Kampong Cham province, focusing on ...