Public health

Police burned nearly 45,000 marijuana plants growing on public forest land in Takeo province on Tuesday and Wednesday after they were tipped off by local villagers, police said Thursday. ...

The Ministry of Health issued a warning to the public to be wary of two common medications for the treatment of Hepatitis C, counterfeit versions of which have been found circulating in Myanmar. ...

While the Kingdom’s frequently criticized hospitals and doctors need to upgrade their services and skills, it is incorrect to label most Cambodian doctors “bad,” Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. ...

The Ministry of Agriculture has played down the results of a study that found high levels of arsenic in some samples of locally grown rice. ...

Following consternation this week over the government’s decision to cease HIV testing in Peam village, health authorities released a statement yesterday seeking to ally any fears of an outbreak. ...

Amid mounting international concern over the emergence of drug-resistant malaria in the Kingdom’s western provinces, a drug cocktail discontinued in 2008 has been reintroduced to stunning success – though how long that success can be sustained is uncertain. ...

The Interior Ministry yesterday called for Beijing’s cooperation in tackling a ring of Chinese methamphetamine traffickers operating in Cambodia, one day after an annual Interior Ministry report announced that the number of drug busts in 2015 had more than doubled compared to 2014. ...

Multiple Cambodian HIV NGOs yesterday questioned the wisdom of discontinuing mass HIV testing at Kandal province’s Peam village, where a disproportionate cluster of infections has been discovered in recent weeks. ...

The Health Ministry is planning no further HIV tests in Kandal province’s Peam village, where a disproportionate cluster of infections has been discovered, despite two-thirds of the village still remaining untested. ...

The Ministry of Health has appealed to the public to protect itself from the H1N1 swine flu virus in a video posted on Facebook yesterday. ...

Testing on anxious villagers began in earnest yesterday as Health Ministry officials arrived in Peam, the Kandal province village recently discovered to have 14 confirmed HIV diagnoses. ...

Despite their overwhelmingly female workforce, garment factories in Kompong Speu province fail to adequately address the maternal health and child-care needs of their staff, according to new study set to be released by the French NGO Enfants and Developpment. ...

As Latin American countries reel from a spike in the number of microcephaly cases, believed to be linked to the mosquito-borne virus Zika, the Cambodian Ministry of Health has urged citizens to take precautions against the spread of the disease here. ...

Australian scientists have made a significant breakthrough in tackling malaria, one of the world’s deadliest diseases.Research led by the University of Melbourne, in conjunction with Stanford University and the University of Cambridge, has discovered compounds which can target the parasite present in the mosquito-borne virus. ...

The two pharmacies caught selling illegal MAZETA Slim diet pills, which were outlawed in Cambodia in December, have been identified, according to Health Ministry officials. The ministry began investigating the pharmacies after an anonymous tip was filed with the ACU earlier this month.   ...

Swiss ambassador to Cambodia Ivo Sieber pledged his country’s continued support of Kantha Bopha Hospital yesterday, mentioning that almost half of the hospital’s funding comes from the Swiss government. The promise was made during Amb. Seiber’s meeting with Foreign Minister Hor Namhong at the Foreign ...

The cause of death of more than 11,000 diseased broiler chickens found dumped in a canal in Kompong Thom province last month has been identified as an infectious virus transmittable to humans, according to the Ministry of Agriculture’s animal health department. ...

Ministry of Health of Cambodia announced that all guardians ought to bring children to vaccinate (Vaccine) preventing inflammation of the encephalitis, meningitis, hepatitis, polio, measles and rubella. The vaccine for infant is for free. ...

Malaria infections in Cambodia and the Greater Mekong sub-region fell overall in 2015, according to health officials. But the continuing spread of drug-resistant parasites that cause the disease remains a major concern for local and international health authorities. ...

The Medical Council of Cambodia and the Ministry of Health are working on a draft law that would force malpractice complaints to go through the council before they make it to a courtroom, an MCC official said yesterday. ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng responded to the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) after it received an anonymous complaint that the diet pill MAZETA Slim, which is unlicensed in Cambodia and therefore illegal to sell, is still being distributed by pharmacies around the Kingdom. According to ministry tests, ...

Officials from the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control (CNM) of the Health Ministry will visit three sites in Phnom Penh today in order to catch and test mosquitoes and larvae for the Zika virus.   ...

An international health NGO has launched a new “crowd-sourcing” surveillance system to be used by the government in monitoring infectious diseases. ...

Eating fortified rice increases the risk of hookworm infections, a study in Cambodian schoolchildren shows, suggesting that the rice’s added nutrients inadvertently help parasites grow. ...