Priority health concerns
Maternal and child health
Fortified rice improves children’s health, study finds
Cambodian children are less prone to diarrhea and fever and perform better on cognitive tests after regularly eating nutrient-fortified rice, according to a new study, the results of which were announced Tuesday. ...
Chris Mueller
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fortified-rice-improves-childrens-health-study-finds-69872/
A factory or family dilemma
Being placed on consecutive short-term contracts in Cambodia’s predominantly female-staffed garment sector is forcing many women to choose between a family and a factory job, unionists and rights groups said yesterday. Ken Chenglang, acting president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia, said many ...
Amelia Woodside and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-or-family-dilemma
Baby formula brands place profit above health
Dara Raksmey, the owner of a pharmacy of the same name on Phnom Penh’s Street 294, keeps a record of every can of Dumex baby formula she sells. “If you buy six large cans you get a scooter and if you buy 12 large cans you ...
Ouch Sony and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/baby-formula-brands-place-profit-above-health-58635/
Japan provides US$11 mln for maternal and child health project
Japan provides US$11.5 million in grand aids to Cambodia for the implementation of the Project for Expansion of National Maternal and Child Health Center. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=NWUxNDNlOTcxMjE
Women’s health gets $14m boost
Taking strides to curb Cambodia’s high maternal and child mortality rates, health officials yesterday launched a $14 million initiative to improve women’s limited access to reproductive health care. During the three-year Partnering to Save Lives campaign, funded by AusAid, NGOs Care Cambodia, Marie Stopes and Save ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/women%E2%80%99s-health-gets-14m-boost
Higher tax, healthier kids: study
A World Bank report highlighting the rate of Cambodian children exposed to second-hand cigarette smoke has bolstered calls to increase tobacco taxes threefold. The World Bank report, which was released on November 20 and titled Risking Your Health, claims nearly 50 per cent of all Cambodians under ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/higher-tax-healthier-kids-study
Cambodia hosts int'l vaccine, immunization meeting
The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) Board meeting was held here on Thursday to decide which new vaccines will be added to the organization’s portfolio. The two-day meeting brought together 160 people who are representatives of donors and developing countries, civil society organizations, vaccine ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-11/21/c_132906783.htm
World Toilet Day Highlights Sanitation Solutions
Tuesday marked World Toilet Day, the annual attempt to push the issue of open defecation back into the spotlight and highlight the preventable illnesses that are caused by what is still a very common practice in Cambodia, which has the lowest toilet coverage in Southeast ...
Simon Henderson and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/world-toilet-day-highlights-sanitation-solutions-47393/
One million Cambodian children received new measles, rubella vaccine
The total number of Cambodian children immunized in the nationwide campaign with measles and rubella vaccines has already reached one million, the Ministry of Health announced Tuesday. Health Minister Mam Bunheng launched the campaign against these two children’s diseases on Oct. 21, aiming to vaccinate all ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2013-11/05/c_132860339.htm
Teenage Pregnancy Rate Stays Constant Over Past Decade
Teenage pregnancies are hindering Cambodia’s development as young mothers are unlikely to finish school and therefore lack job opportunities, government and U.N. officials said at the launch of a global report on adolescent pregnancies on Wednesday. “The Ministry of Women’s Affairs acknowledges that adolescent pregnancies have ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/teenage-pregnancy-rate-stays-constant-over-past-decade-46402/
Mixed bag of health: report
Cambodia is making headway on its 2015 Millennium Development Goal to improve maternal health and is ahead of its target to reduce its under-five child mortality rate, but it still lags behind neighbouring countries, the 2013 State of the World Population Report has revealed. Released yesterday, ...
Amelia Woodside and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mixed-bag-health-report
Immunisation program largest ever
Cambodia’s largest-ever immunisation program will launch today with the introduction of a new vaccine against rubella and measles, World Health Organization officials said yesterday. The Ministry of Health aims to inoculate more than four million children between the ages of nine months and 15 years before ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/immunisation-program-largest-ever
2,000 Cambodian children die of diarrhea per year: UNICEF
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Cambodia said Sunday that a new figure showed that about 2,000 Cambodian children die every year of diarrheal diseases due to lack of safe water, sanitation and basic hygiene. “In Cambodia, perhaps 2,000 die of diarrhea each year. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2013-10/20/c_132814406.htm
Hunger Reduced, Malnourishment Next Issue
Cambodia has reached its millennium development goal of reducing by half the number of people who suffer from hunger, but more needs to be done to make sure that the population now receives the right nutrients, officials said on World Food Day Wednesday. Making the announcement ...
Denise Hruby and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hunger-reduced-malnourishment-next-issue-45363/
Sick children swamp hospital
As flood victims surge to the capital to receive medical treatment, doctors at Phnom Penh’s Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital say they’ve never seen such overcrowding. Parents holding their sick children and infants line the perimeter of the complex, spending up to seven hours crouched on hot ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sick-children-swamp-hospital
Battling dengue on a shoestring
The man leading Cambodia’s seemingly Sisyphean attempt to combat dengue fever can be found most days in a weakly lit office inside the Communicable Disease Control Department, which is stacked wall to wall with drooping folders and medical texts. For more than 10 years, the soft-spoken ...
Amelia Woodside and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/battling-dengue-shoestring
Young child makes bird flu recovery
A 15-month-old toddler who represented the 18th confirmed case of avian influenza in Cambodia this year has recovered and was released from Kantha Bopha hospital on Friday. The little boy from Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district developed a fever on August 16, and was transferred a ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/young-child-makes-bird-flu-recovery
Study charts AIDS progress
Cambodia’s decline in HIV/AIDS mortalities has made it a regional anomaly, according to a new study published today by a global health research centre at the University of Washington. While HIV/AIDS remains a leading cause of disease burden in Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, and mortality ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/study-charts-aids-progress
Cambodia: The Rural Poor are Receiving Free Heath Care in Preah Vihear
Siv Mao, 25, just had a caesarian operation. She feels some discomfort but is smiling. Her newborn baby is sleeping fitfully beside her and she says: “They saved our lives and I’m happy.” Ms. Mao encountered complications in her pregnancy and doctors knew she could not ...
Maternal health gets a boost in 3 provinces
About 300,000 women of reproductive age will receive higher-quality emergency obstetric and newborn-care services thanks to a sizeable handover of medical equipment and supplies to government health centres and hospitals in Kampong Thom, Kampot and Kep provinces. Through a partnership seeking to improve the social healthcare ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/maternal-health-gets-boost-3-provinces
Two Cambodian children hospitalized with H5N1
Cambodia’s health ministry today announced two more H5N1 avian flu cases, both in children, the hardest-hit group in that country so far. The patients are a 9-year-old boy from Battambang province and a 5-year-old girl from Kandal province, according to a joint statement today from Cambodia’s ...
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2013/08/two-cambodian-children-hospitalized-h5n1
Cambodia tests 'super rice' to fortify its children
For breakfast, it’s rice. For lunch, it’s rice again, and for dinner – rice. Sometimes, Cambodian Un Koy says, her mother will prepare some beans or carrots, and on very special days even fish or pork. Across Asia, rice is the most widely consumed staple. That’s ...
Prey Veng Boy Confirmed as 14th Bird Flu Case This Year
A 3-year-old boy from Prey Veng province’s Kompong Trabek district has contracted avian influenza, a deadly disease that has killed seven children and two men so far this year in the largest outbreak the country has seen, the Ministry of Health said in a statement ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/prey-veng-boy-confirmed-as-14th-bird-flu-case-this-year-34758/
New Siem Reap health centre to be a boon for mothers, babies
With the promise of better care for both mother and baby during labour, the Maternal Child Medical Centre was inaugurated yesterday at the Siem Reap Provincial Hospital. The inauguration was presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Tea Banh, who said the centre was the first of ...