Priority health concerns

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, ...

A group of NGOs condemned rampant abuses of sexual and reproductive health rights in Cambodia last week, just days before the government submitted a human rights progress report to the United Nations. The Cambodian Center for Human Rights, in cooperation with the Asia Pacific Network of ...

An eight-year-old girl from Cambodia’s eastern Kampong Thom province has been confirmed for the H5N1 virus, bringing the number of the cases to 21 so far this year, a joint statement by the World Health Organization and the Cambodian Health Ministry said Tuesday. The little girl ...

Cambodia recorded 29,631 malaria cases in the first nine months of 2013, down 46 percent from the 54,464 cases over the same period last year, the figures of the National Center for Malaria showed Monday. During the January-September period this year, the disease killed only 7 ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

Flooding is a perennial pain in Cambodia, the low-lying, deeply impoverished nation squeezed between Thailand and Vietnam. About this time each year, rivers swell, lakes expand and villages sink beneath soupy brown waters. But this year’s flooding woes are proving particularly miserable. More than 100 are dead, ...

Cambodia will meet some of the Millennium Development Goals by the end of 2015 and will continue to deal with landmine threats, said a Cambodian envoy to UN Tuesday at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly. The number of people below the poverty line ...

Amid concerns the Pchum Ben holiday will lead to a spike in bird flu cases, health officials have begun to roll out a widespread education campaign aimed at stanching the spread of H5N1. The highly fatal flu has seen 20 cases and 11 deaths this ...

Despite massive reductions in HIV infection rates over the past two decades, HIV-positive Cambodians continue to face a wide array of non-medical challenges, a report released yesterday says. Written by NGOs, aid agencies and the government, the report says that vulnerable groups, including those who are ...

Cambodia reported 25,050 malaria cases in the first eight months of this year, down 49 percent from the 48,810 cases over the same period last year, figures from the National Center for Malaria showed Thursday. During the January-August period this year, the disease has killed six ...

A 5-year-old girl from Takeo province and a 2-year-old girl from Kampot province – who has already died – mark the 19th and 20th confirmed cases of avian influenza this year, a hospital spokesman said. The Ministry of Health is expected to issue a statement ...

A fast-track approach in identifying patients with tuberculosis (TB) may help tackle the spread of the disease in the city. Currently, the WHO-approved model is practiced in Cambodia to reduce the burden of TB. “The idea is to identify patients who come into hospital with ...

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 ...

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control announced on Thursday that there has been a strange increase in the number of cases of paratyphoid A fever from travelers returning from Cambodia. Since March 2013, there have been 34 cases of paratyphoid A fever reported from ...

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 ...

A 15-month-old boy in the capital’s Russei Keo district has been diagnosed with H5N1 virus, bringing the number of the cases to 18 so far this year, a joint statement by the World Health Organization and Cambodian Health Ministry said Wednesday. The latest death case ...

Legalisation of same-sex marriage, comprehensive sex education and non-discriminatory guidelines for health workers treating LGBT people and those living with HIV/AIDS are among a handful of ways to bolster human rights in Cambodia, according to a submission delivered to the United Nations ahead of the ...

A new report from Cam­bodia’s centre for malaria control shows fatalities from the disease have dropped 85 per cent in the first half of 2013 compared with the same period last year. The total number of malaria cases reduced by 52 per cent during that period, ...

A six-year-old boy from Cambodia’s southern Kandal Province has been confirmed for the H5N1 virus, bringing the number of the cases to 17 so far this year, a joint statement by the World Health Organization and Cambodian Health Ministry said Wednesday. “The boy has now ...

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 ...

The Cambodian veterinary authorities have reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Battambang affecting backyard poultry. An immediate notification was sent to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) reporting that the causal agent has been identified as the HPAI virus, serotype H5N1. ...