Priority health concerns

The Phnom Penh health department has announced an investigation into the death of a newborn who allegedly choked while being fed by staff at the privately owned VIP Sorphea Maternity Hospital.   ...

Teachers at Toul Mead Primary School in Siem Reap province tell students to bring drinking water from home to keep them hydrated in the scorching heat. But water is increasingly hard to come by as the worst drought in decades drags on.   ...

Malnutrition costs the Cambodian economy an estimated $266 million each year, according to a new report, which urged the government to invest more in tackling the problem.   ...

The first outbreak of H5N1 this year was confirmed in Kampot province on May 10, health officials said yesterday. ...

Cambodia is among 10 countries that achieved accelerated progress in maternal and child health – ahead of comparable countries – by meeting goals to reduce mortality among those population groups, according to a recent cross-country analysis by the WHO.   ...

Although the number of dengue fever cases in Cambodia nearly tripled during the first 17 weeks of 2016 compared to the same period last year, a health official said a vaccine for the mosquito-borne virus still needs to be vetted by the WHO before local ...

A baby was born at sea on Monday afternoon in Koh Kong province after a mother went in labor on a boat on her way to hospital. ...

In recognition of this year’s World Malaria Day on Monday this week, the Health Minister reconfirmed Cambodia’s commitment to eliminate the disease by 2025 during a speech in Pailin on Monday. ...

No one knows exactly why resistance to malaria drugs always emerges first in this remote western province of Cambodia, nestled in the Cardamom Mountains. “The reasons are as much social as biological,” says malariologist Tom Peto, who is here in this dusty, unremarkable-looking town battling ...

Dwindling donor funding for combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis could have a critical impact on low-income countries like Cambodia, a new study has found, with some health workers in the Kingdom saying that the squeeze is already being felt.   ...

The rate of HIV infection among Cambodia’s transgender women is nearly six times higher than the national average, according to the results of a 2012 survey published in the online journal PLOS ONE this month. ...

Nearly half of Cambodian women of reproductive age suffer from at least mild anemia, however iron and other nutrient deficiencies may not be to blame, a study published on Friday suggests.   ...

A new study suggests that “emanators” that slowly release chemical vapors over time could be an effective way to keep mosquitoes at bay, even when people cannot shelter under mosquito nets. ...

Efforts to catch and fight dengue outbreaks in Cambodia are more likely to be effective if they are conducted at the provincial level, according to a study published last week in online science journal BioMed Central. ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng said Wednesday that he was unconcerned by a letter sent to him by the head of the National Assembly’s health commission last month concerning a spate of recently discovered HIV cases in Kandal province.   ...

Health officials say they now doubt there is a new outbreak of HIV in Kandal province, following an investigation. ...

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. ...

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. ...

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. ...

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 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. ...