Public health

The Global Fund has backed down on its threat to cut or reduce health grants to Cambodia worth more than $100 million, saying they considered the fraction of misused funds that have been returned thus far a sign of sufficient good will. In a letter sent ...

The government must act now in order to avoid a “tsunami” of tobacco-related deaths in the coming years, according to the co-author of a new report on smoking that appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday. Research for the study, Smoking prevalence ...

Financial records the Global Fund requested for its investigation into widespread corruption in health grants to Cambodia were withheld and censored by grant recipients, the probe found, suggesting a systematic attempt to cover up wrongdoing. Out of a total of $220.3 million worth of expenses the ...

The government’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Tuesday delivered its latest report on its review of allegations of massive bribe taking inside the Health Ministry leveled by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria in November. Officials on Wednesday were mum about the review, however, ...

Both dengue fever and malaria deaths have plummeted this year compared to the same period in 2012, which was a peak year for the cyclical dengue, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health. Dengue fever killed 59 people and infected 17,491 during the ...

International donors along with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Planning kick-started the Kingdom’s fourth Demographic and Health Survey in the capital yesterday. ...

An increasing number of Cambodians see themselves faring worse, a Gallup polls suggests. In a global survey released earlier this month, the US-based firm ranked Cambodia near the very bottom in terms of life satisfaction, and it found that 34 percent of surveyed Cambodians consider themselves ...

Cambodia’s Anti-corruption Unit has criticised the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for not sending them the findings of its investigation into widespread corruption in health grants. Chhay Savuth, vice-president of the Anti-Corruption Unit, said he had contacted the Global Fund to request evidence ...

The Global Fund has threatened to suspend or reduce health grants to Cambodia totalling more than $100 million if the Ministry of Health, the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD (NCHADS) and NGO umbrella group MEDiCAM fail to meet a 30-day deadline to return ...

A financial review by USAID, the U.S. government’s development arm, into local health NGO Reproductive and Child Health Alliance (RACHA) has found financial mismanagement coupled with a lack of transparency and oversight within the organization that may point to evidence of fraudulent activity. Well-known for its ...

The government plans to extend the country’s still-limited capacity to treat ailing prisoners by building more secure rooms inside provincial hospitals. As part of the General Department of Prisons’ 2014-2018 strategic plan, the Ministry of Interior hopes to have rooms specifically designated for prisoners in each ...

High school students are increasingly using methamphetamines and other stimulants to relax or help them study, according to the UN. A spike in trafficking of amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) across the borders with Thailand and Laos over the past two years has gone hand-in-hand with a rise ...

Eight Cambodians have died from malaria so far this year, compared to 37 in the same period last year, a drop of about 80 percent and a sign that the country could soon reach the goal of zero malaria deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) ...

The United States government on Wednesday launched a HIV research project in Cambodia, aiming to collect and disseminate critical data that will help the country in the fight against HIV. Men Chean Rithy, coordinator for the newly-launched HIV Innovate and Evaluate Project, said the U.S. provided ...

The Phnom Penh municipal health department on Monday said that it would allow a health center claiming to cure diseases such as cancer and diabetes through “detox” treatments to remain open, despite previous claims that it had already been shut down. Sok Sokun, director of the ...

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 ...

Researchers at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases have isolated a new class of drugs that could be used to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis, a disease that affects thousands of Cambodians, according to a report published in the journal Science Translational Medicine last week. The drugs, called indolcarboxamides, work ...

The offices of Herbalife, a so-called multilevel marketing company that has moved into the protein powder market in Cambodia, stand like a beacon of promise in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district: Six stories of glass and white paneling, crisp lime-green signage and a four-story-high banner ...

An expatriate living in Phnom Penh has set up a fund to raise $3,000 over the next month to help pay the medical expenses of a student shot in the spine by a police officer at the SL Garment Factory workers’ protest last month. Hoeurn Chann, ...

Injecting methamphetamines is on the rise in Cambodia, particularly among younger addicts, as recreational users have begun to switch from smoking and pill-popping to mainlining, a report by the Australian National Council on Drugs suggests. The report, released yesterday, details how amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and their ...

As temperatures drop during the cool season, children, infants and the elderly should take extra measures to ward off common seasonal illnesses, officials from the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday. In a press release issued by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization’s ...

The Ministry of Health said Thursday it would shut down a Phnom Penh health center that claims to cure diseases such as cancer and diabetes with the help of detoxifying machines, according to officials. Immanuel Bicom True Healing Center in Chamkar Mon district did not have ...

A medical team of 10 Chinese ophthalmologists from the Beijing Tongren Hospital have helped operate on eye patients in Cambodia as a part of the celebrations of the 55th anniversary of China-Cambodia diplomatic ties. The team have spent a two-day humanitarian mission at the Preah Ketomelea ...

An investigation by BBC news program Panorama into the misuse of Global Fund aid to Cambodia has claimed that the Fund “watered down” a report released last month, which exposed a network of corruption in Cambodia’s health sector. But Panorama, which obtained a leaked copy of the original ...