Health care policy and administration

The German ambassador, Joachim Baron von Marschall, signed an agreement with the permanent Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon yesterday for €47 million ($64 million) in aid. The grant will be used for developing projects within the ministries of health, rural development and women’s affairs. ...

Decriminalising sex work could slash the world’s HIV infections by a third or more, according to a new study. Published yesterday in health journal The Lancet, the paper says that punitive treatment of sex workers can “elevate HIV acquisition and transmission risks”. In Cambodia, which has Southeast Asia’s ...

Cambodia’s efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS over the past 15 years have won it praise, and put it well ahead of many other low-income countries.  But some of those most involved in the fight against AIDS are worried that an array of challenges could see some of ...

At nearly half of the Kingdom’s primary schools, students have to make a daily choice between drinking contaminated water or going thirsty, a dilemma the government hopes to soon banish with new minimum sanitation and safe water standards. The guidelines, which have yet to be finalised ...

Cambodia has reported 15,980 malaria cases in the first six months of 2014, down 18 percent from 19,560 cases over the same period last year, a health official said Sunday. ...

The Thai Public Health Ministry is looking into a report published in The Cambodia Daily about a Cambodian woman allegedly running an organ-transplant racket in which she reportedly persuades people to sell their kidney to patients in Thailand. Dr Thares Karasnairaviwong, deputy director general of the ...

On the road to legal employment in Thailand, Cambodian migrant workers are being made to undergo check-ups that have them cough, strip and give blood and urine samples to prove they are physically and mentally sound enough to work in the country. Obtaining a workers’ permit, ...

Cambodia has reported 1,005 dengue fever cases in the first six months of 2014, down 83 percent from 6,039 cases in the same period last year, a health official said Friday. Char Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, said ...

Experts will begin tests today on two barrels discovered in Mondulkiri province earlier this week, which are suspected to contain chemicals used by the US in the 1970s in its war against the Viet Cong, officials said yesterday. Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine ...

Makers of food- and beverage-related products are for the first time facing mandatory health regulations, with the unveiling of 10 national standards by the Ministry of Industry and Handicraft. The announcement comes after the National Standard Council, a government-run committee, finally approved the standards in May ...

A company ordered to cease its sand-dredging operation along the Sesan River in Ratanakkiri province after it was accused of illegally searching for gold is now defying the order, villagers claimed Monday. Discovery Power, a joint Chinese-Cambodian venture, was given a license to dredge sand for ...

Every week, dozens of diabetics gather at a home in the Boeng Kak lake neighborhood to have their weight, blood sugar levels and blood pressure checked. They are among 12,000 impoverished people across the country taking part in the NGO MoPoTsyo’s peer support program, which allows ...

A private clinic aiming to provide medical care to factory workers in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone (SEZ) will open this month, the health centre’s managing director said yesterday. ...

Despite sustained levels of high economic growth, most people in Cambodia are still eating rice at every meal, with little meat, fish or vegetables, meaning undernutrition will remain high and stunting common among children if the government does not scale up targeted health programs, a ...

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 ...

A private utilities company owned by wealthy businessman and ruling Cambodian People’s Party Senator Kok An is fulfilling only about half of Poipet’s demand for clean water, despite being contracted to supply the whole town, according to the city governor. With priority for the distribution of ...

South Korea on Monday signed up to provide a grant aid of 21 million U.S. dollars to Cambodia to support four projects for rural development, waterway improvement, health and the stock market. Speaking after the signing ceremony, Hor Namhong said 8 million U.S. dollars of ...

Hundreds of families in Koh Kong province have since early May been affected by drought and a lack of clean water, which is supposed to be provided by tycoon and ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat. Due to the annual drought in the province, two reservoirs ...

In less than two months, smokers indulging in Cambodia’s inexpensive cigarettes will have to reach a little deeper into their wallets. Starting in July, the tax on cigarettes will jump from 20 per cent to 30 per cent of the retail price, with a tax base ...

The government has approved a second phase of a pilot project in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces that will this time see professional caregivers rather than volunteers visit the homes of the elderly to assist with domestic work, hygiene needs and general companionship. “Families are the ...

Every day for weeks on end, 6-year-old Srey Nuch was tormented by severe pain caused by several of her teeth rotting away. Her mother, Lay Vicheka, despaired when she heard her daughter’s cries, knowing the family was far too poor to pay a dentist to fix ...

Cambodia’s progress in reducing maternal mortality was recognised internationally this week at the 67th World Health Assembly in Switzerland. Efforts to increase the number of skilled birth attendants and an increase in the number of 24-hour emergency centres available to pregnant women were both credited with ...

Nearly three years after it was shut down for supposed renovations, Phnom Penh’s Chamkar Mon Referral Hospital is still not operational and former staff say they have been left out in the cold about what will happen to the site. Commune, district, municipal and national health ...

The government has a response to teachers’ request for health insurance: We’ll provide it if you buy it. At a meeting in Takeo province this past weekend, the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) said an upcoming teacher strike would include health insurance on the list of ...