Public health

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, ...

Dengue-related deaths have dropped 71 per cent during the first nine months of this year when compared to the same period last year, according to officials at the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control. While 157 died because of dengue in 2012, only 45 ...

Flooding continues to ravage 15 of Cambodia’s 23 provinces, acutely affecting Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Pailin and Siem Reap, and claiming 83 lives, according to the latest figures released by the National Committee for Disaster Management. Nhim Vanda, first deputy chairman of the NCDM, confirmed that while ...

The death toll from flooding across the country has risen to 39, while the Mekong River remains above emergency levels in Prey Veng and Kandal provinces, a government official said on Friday. Keo Vy, cabinet chief for the government’s National Committee for Disaster Management, said that ...

Phnom Penh’s National Blood Transfusion Center (NBTC) has dropped to its lowest level of the year, with only 10 units in stock and doctors relying heavily on patients’ family members and friends to donate in emergency situations, health officials said Thursday. NBTC Director Dr. Hok Kim ...

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 ...

Villagers have accused a CPP commune chief in Ratanakkiri province of threatening four ethnic minority Tampoun men after they filed a complaint against him for allegedly selling off community land to a local businessman. Rocham Norng, a Tampoun villager in Bakeo district, has alleged that Soeung ...

With the long-ruling CPP sworn in to govern for another five years despite the opposition CNRP abstaining from sitting in the National Assembly due to election irregularities, a new report argues that imminent threats to Cam­bodia’s future development can only be overcome with significant government ...

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) — The World Health Organization ( WHO) said Friday that rabies was still a public health hazard in Cambodia and called for broad vaccinations for dogs to prevent the disease. “Rabies is highly endemic and a noticeable disease in Cambodia, ” ...

The death toll caused by severe flooding along the Mekong River increased by eight yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths over the past two weeks to more than 20, including 11 children, an official said. Keo Vy, deputy chief of the information department at the ...

The Appeal Court has reduced the already shortened sentence of the 31-year-old son of a high-ranking official who killed three women in a car accident, ordering him to serve just two months in prison, a court official said Tuesday. Bun Rattanak, the son of municipal finance ...

Chinese hospital ship “Peace Ark” arrived at the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port on Tuesday as part of its overseas voyage to further enhance China- Cambodia ties and to provide medical services to local residents. The ship’s visit was to provide medical service to local people and ...

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 ...

About 20 people grinned for the camera as they posed in front of a flagpole-like structure located just off a muddy dirt road in Kampong Chhnang province’s Samaki Meanchey district on Thursday morning. While a rather unimpressive visual, the agrometerological station is a first-of-its-kind device in ...

Unicef during a discussion yesterday pressured the Phnom Penh Municipality to develop a plan to eradicate slums in the capital, but government officials offered no quick fixes. According to the municipality, there are 281 slum communities in the capital, which 2,033 families call home. Earlier this month, ...

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 ...

More than 2,000 cattle in Svay Rieng province are infected with the potentially fatal foot-and-mouth disease, officials said yesterday. Pen Chhanthy, chief of the provincial animal health and production office, said that cattle in six districts of Svay Rieng had returned positive tests for the ...

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 ...

When the ruling CPP takes its seats in the new National Assembly, its members of Parliament will include a few new faces, and significantly less old ones, according to ratified election results announced by the National Election Committee (NEC) on Sunday. The CPP’s poor showing in ...