Public health

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 ...

France’s Institut Pasteur du Cambodge on Tuesday inaugurated a new facility here for a regional research platform in Asia, focusing its research on infectious diseases in the region. Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng, Vincent Deubel, director of the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, and French Nobel Prize ...

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 ...

About 300 angry villagers blocked a dusty road in Takeo province’s Bati district on Friday, demanding that three quarrying firms follow through on promises to pave it, a local official said Sunday. The villagers are unhappy that the quarrying firms’ trucks kick up massive amounts of ...

Born with cerebral palsy, 5-year-old Chhen Sivong has trouble walking, standing and raising his arms, but he also struggles with an even more fundamental motor skill: swallowing. Around the time he turned one, the little boy began having problems eating solid food, which upset both Sivong ...

More than 100 garment and shoe factory workers fainted in two separate incidents Thursday, the first reported factory faintings of the year, according to local officials. Eighty-two garment workers fainted at the Crystal Martin factory in Kandal province after inhaling fumes from leaking battery acid, a ...

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 ...

About four tons of fish were found dead on the surface of Boeng Vien lake in Kompong Cham province this weekend, leading villagers to collect them to make emergency batches of the fermented fish paste known as prahok. Srey Santhor district governor Heng Vanny said that ...

Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong said Tuesday he would shut down the shisha bars—where customers smoke flavored tobacco through large Middle-Eastern style water pipes—that have recently sprung up around the city. While the governor noted there was nothing illegal about the pipes or tobacco, he told ...

Some 100 physicians from the Phnom Penh Municipal Referral Hospital staged a protest on Tuesday after their superiors planned to sell the current hospital building. ...

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 ...

The National Blood Transfusion Center (NBTC) on Friday took Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to call on students to “show love” by donating blood, a drive that collected 400 units of blood. “On [Valentine’s Day] we are all willing to show our love by donating blood ...

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 ...

The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a joint memo yesterday advising recipients to take measures to ban smoking in public places. The “circular” is the first of its kind in Cambodia, and is to be distributed by all government ministries in ...

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. ...

In 1990, Pen Hoeurng was out in the field tending her cows and buffalo when the rattle of machine-gun fire erupted in the surrounding forest and she was struck by a bullet from an M-16. Ms. Hoeurng, now 48, does not know whether she was shot ...

The National Blood Transfusion Center hopes to boost the Kingdom’s blood stocks by targetting youth donors at a second annual Valentine’s Day blood drive. This year’s February 14 campaign will target university students and youth aged 18 and older, who make up about 70 per ...

Two suppliers of mosquito nets to Cambodia found to have bribed officials to gain contracts under the Global Fund’s health grant scheme have had their contracts renewed. The two firms, Sumitomo Chemical and Vestergaard Frandsen, were found by the fund’s Office of the Inspector General in ...