Priority health concerns

Cambodia’s porous borders are creating one of several headaches for health officials working to minimise outbreaks of avian influenza, officials revealed yesterday at a symposium on emerging infectious diseases in Southeast Asia. The border provinces of Takeo and Kampong Cham have been witness to the highest ...

Two more new human cases of avian influenza H5N1 have been confirmed in Cambodia, and one of them, an 11-year-old boy died on Friday in Phnom Penh’s Kantha Bopha Children Hospital, a hospital representative confirmed Monday. “An 11-year-old boy from Kampong Chhnang province was admitted to ...

About 1,000 Cambodian women died from cervical cancer every year, said Hun Many, president of Union of Youth Federation of Cambodia. Speaking Saturday at a news conference on anti cervical cancer campaign, Many, son of Prime Minister Hun Sen, said the death rate of cervical ...

Every morning, right about 8am, Vuthy* starts to feel out of sorts. On the way from his home in Meanchey district to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, where he receives treatment, he breaks into a sweat. Vuthy is one of about 140 former heroin addicts who ...

The Ministry of Agriculture has created designated bird flu contamination zones in Phnom Penh and Kandal province following the deaths of hundreds of birds due to the H5N1 virus, officials said Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Ouk Rabon signed two directives late last month saying that poultry being ...

The Cambodian veterinary authorities have reported two outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 in Kampong Speu province affecting backyard poultry as well as in Kandal, affecting duck flocks in two households. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) received follow-up report no. 1 ...

A four-year-old boy from Cambodia’s northeastern Kratie Province has been confirmed for H5N1 human avian influenza, becoming the 3rd case this year, said a joint statement by the World Health Organization and the Cambodian Health Ministry on Wednesday. The boy was confirmed positive for the virus ...

Since its emergence in the region more than a decade ago, the governments of Southeast Asia have been fighting to contain the human avian influenza virus through surveillance programs, rigorous inspections and widespread culling of infected birds. In Cambodia last year, 13 people died of ...

In late January, five of the 10 chickens owned by Leng Lal, a subsistence rice farmer in Kratie province, suddenly died. Although Mr. Lal, 40, said he knew the dead birds might be dangerous and he should burn and bury the carcasses, he instructed his 8-year-old ...

A seven-year-old boy and his three-year-old sister from Cambodia’s northeastern Kratie Province died from H5N1 human avian influenza on Friday bring the death number of the cases to three so far this year, a health official confirmed Wednesday. H5N1 influenza is a flu that normally ...

A 7-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister died from bird flu at Kompong Cham Provincial Referral Hospital on Friday, Hong Palla, team leader of the rapid response unit at Kratie Provincial Health Department, said Tuesday. The two young siblings from Snuol district’s Sre Cha commune contracted ...

Cambodia plans to distribute 100,000 condoms on Valentine Day in cooperation with partners, health ministry of Cambodia on Monday announced that it planned to distribute 100,000 condoms on Feb 14, Valentine day. ...

After reporting 26 human H5N1 avian influenza cases in 2013, by far the most of any country, the Kingdom of Cambodia has announced their first case of the lethal bird flu on 2014, according to a Ministry of Health press release Feb. 4.   The case is a 5-year-old ...

It started with a small, dark spot on Oeur Pisey’s left arm: A spot that he simply ignored. Slowly, other spots appeared. They soon covered Mr. Pisey’s thighs, upper body, and eventually, his face. A local health clinic in Kompong Cham province told him not to worry: ...

Cambodia reported about 17,533 dengue fever cases in 2013, down 59 percent from the 42,362 cases in a year earlier, a health official said Monday. The disease killed 59 children, representing a 69 percent decrease from the 189 deaths in a year earlier, said Char Meng ...

Cambodia recorded 41,850 malaria cases in 2013, down 40 percent from 69,550 cases a year earlier, a health official said Sunday. The disease killed 12 people last year, down 74 percent from 46 deaths a year earlier, Char Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for ...

Some 4.5 million Cambodian children aged between 9 months and 15 years, have received new measles and rubella vaccines during the biggest nationwide immunization campaign, starting from October to December. Addressing in a joint press conference on the success of measles-rubella vaccine supplementary immunization activity campaign ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...