Ministry of Health

Cambodia launched a health strategic plan in 2002, in an effort to improve services to areas that lack medical personnel and resources. But in many rural areas, there has been little progress, and even an awareness of basic hygiene and disease prevention remains considerably low. ...

The country’s anti-corruption czar on Tuesday said the former director of the National Malaria Center must pay back the $351,000 in bribes he took in exchange for mosquito net contracts—effectively admitting the ex-director’s guilt—but that he would not be prosecuted. ...

The Anti-Corruption Unit has written to Health Minister Mam Bunheng to say that his ministry is failing to follow required procurement procedures and to urge him to bring its practices in line. ...

Alcohol consumption in Cambodia is high enough that authorities are now drafting legislation for a drinking age. But as the country and its economy develop, many here say it has become an essential part of their social—and professional—lives. ...

The recent death from rabies of a French resident of Kampot has caused coastal vets and doctors to call for increased vigilance and improved preventative measures in Cambodia, which is still classed as a “red” zone for the lethal virus. ...

A Health Ministry official said Thursday that an investigation in the wake of a devastating HIV outbreak in Battambang province’s Roka commune late last year had revealed more than 3,000 unlicensed doctors operating across the country. ...

The Health Ministry has drafted Cambodia’s first-ever law to control the sale and consumption of alcohol, which imposes a minimum legal drinking age of 21 and would fine retailers who sell liquor to anyone underage. ...

Following an outbreak in South Korea of a deadly respiratory disease which has killed three people and infected 36 in that country since late last month, Cambodian health officials on Friday asked travelers coming from infected regions to be vigilant to avoid its spread here. ...

Cambodia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Southeast Asia. The number of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth has dropped in recent years. But it is still far short of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. The Cambodian government accepted those goals ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng has been called to appear before the National Assembly’s anticorruption commission, according to a copy of the summons issued by acting National Assembly President Kem Sokha obtained Sunday. ...

Cambodia is not meeting many of its UN Millennium Development Goals, which are coming due this year, but it has made progress in the reduction of infant mortality. Currently, 28 of 1,000 children born in Cambodia die before reaching the age of one. That number is ...

Thirty-six villagers remained hospitalized Monday afternoon after about 800 fell ill on Saturday from eating tainted sandwiches distributed at a World Vision event in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kreng district, officials said. ...

Approximately 570 Cambodian people, mostly children, in northwestern Cambodia’s Siem Reap province got sick after eating bread filled with meat and vegetables on Saturday afternoon, a provincial health chief confirmed. ...

Villagers in a remote district of northeast Cambodia’s Kratie province say obtaining medical treatment has become extremely difficult since the government reinforced a ban on unlicensed health workers and clinics earlier this month in the wake of a mass HIV infection last year. ...

The government is drafting a new food safety law in an effort to better protect consumers, a Health Ministry spokesman Friday. ...

The head of the National Assembly’s commission on public health submitted a letter to the Assembly’s president on Thursday requesting that the government find funds to help HIV-positive villagers in Battambang province’s Roka commune pay back the debts they have incurred due to the virus. ...

Amid an ongoing investigation into the massive HIV outbreak in Battambang’s Roka commune, health officials yesterday said that they are requesting that auto-disabled syringes be exclusively used for administering injections in Cambodia. ...

Battambang provincial authorities have ordered nine unlicensed doctors to shut down their home-care practices in the province, including six in Sangke district’s Roka commune, where more than 230 residents have tested positive for HIV over the past three months. ...

The ministries of health and interior introduced a joint strategy yesterday to curb illegal medical practices and the use of fraudulent health products. ...

About 20 nursing students from the privately run International Science Institute petitioned the National Assembly on Wednesday to demand action against their school, which they claim is unlicensed and providing them with a substandard education. The school opened in 2012 and currently has about 160 students, ...

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 ...

Officials are investigating Preah Sihanouk Provincial Hospital after anonymous complaints were put forward against its director, accusing him of corruption and a lack of transparency. According to anonymous letters written by doctors and nurses in the hospital and widely disseminated, hospital director Seng Nong has been ...

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 ...

Cambodia’s Minister of Health on Tuesday vowed to eliminate the country’s unlicensed medical clinics and hire more health care providers, after an unauthorized medical worker who admitted to reusing syringes was linked to a mass HIV infection in a remote western village. ...