Public health

Two more people have tested positive for HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune this month, bringing the total number infected to 272 since an outbreak of the virus was first detected in December, a health official said Wednesday. ...

A recently released study on hygiene in Cambodia has found that a lack of understanding of the dangers of handling child faeces is causing serious health problems. ...

A new report suggests counterfeit anti-malarial drugs are far less prevalent in Cambodia than previously thought, but almost a third of the legitimate medicines are of substandard quality. According to the study, published on Monday by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, none of ...

Earlier this year, a mob in Takeo province beat a mentally ill man to death, then dragged his body into the rice paddies and set it on fire. The 27-year-old was suspected of robbery. This week, Takeo Governor Lay Vannak launched a campaign to combat future ...

Some 100,000 prospective patients could lose opportunity for eye care due to Australia scaling back its foreign aid budget. But as Fred Hollows and other Australian NGOs brace themselves for the cuts, the Australian government is forging ahead with a $40 million scheme to relocate ...

An 89-year-old woman who was among the more than 240 villagers to test positive for HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune died Monday, bringing the total number of deaths since the outbreak was first detected in December to eight. ...

Government authorities in a southwest Cambodian province are planning a coordinated campaign to round up residents suffering from mental illness and take them to Buddhist temples where they will be cared for by monks, a provincial official said. ...

Dengue fever cases in the Kingdom have increased by nearly 80 per cent compared with the same period last year, and the Cambodia National Malaria Center (CNM) said yesterday that it expects a continued surge throughout 2015. ...

An education campaign launched by Cambodia’s National Immunization Program (NIP) in the aftermath of last year’s HIV outbreak in Battambang has been effective in dispelling the concerns of parents hesitant to get their children vaccinated, government health bodies and the World Health Organization have said. ...

A woman was arrested on Wednesday in Banteay Meanchey province for allegedly smuggling 12 methamphetamine pills into the provincial prison by slashing open green beans and tucking the pills inside, local police said Thursday. ...

Cambodia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Southeast Asia. The number of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth has dropped in recent years. But it is still far short of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. The Cambodian government accepted those goals ...

Cambodia has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the region, and despite UN goals set up for the end of 2015, that number has remained high. There, only 75 percent of women giving birth were attended by trained health workers in 2012, according ...

A deputy commune chief in Battambang province’s Roka commune, where an outbreak of HIV has infected nearly 250 villagers, died Monday. ...

Only one child remained hospitalized Wednesday after a group of about 800 people fell ill from food poisoning caused by tainted sandwiches served at a World Vision event in Siem Reap province on Saturday, a spokesman for the NGO said.​ ...

Cambodia is not meeting many of its UN Millennium Development Goals, which are coming due this year, but it has made progress in the reduction of infant mortality. Currently, 28 of 1,000 children born in Cambodia die before reaching the age of one. That number is ...

Health experts have thrown their weight behind a provision in the draft tobacco-control law that will require graphic health warnings to cover half the face of Cambodia’s cigarette packages. According to article 10 of the law – first drafted in 2003 – the images must ...

Thirty-six villagers remained hospitalized Monday afternoon after about 800 fell ill on Saturday from eating tainted sandwiches distributed at a World Vision event in Siem Reap province’s Chi Kreng district, officials said. ...

The World Health Organization has declared Cambodia measles-free, having not registered a confirmed case in over three years, marking a success in combating what was once the country’s most deadly communicable disease. ...

Approximately 570 Cambodian people, mostly children, in northwestern Cambodia’s Siem Reap province got sick after eating bread filled with meat and vegetables on Saturday afternoon, a provincial health chief confirmed. ...

Villagers in a remote district of northeast Cambodia’s Kratie province say obtaining medical treatment has become extremely difficult since the government reinforced a ban on unlicensed health workers and clinics earlier this month in the wake of a mass HIV infection last year. ...

Officials in Battambang and Pailin provinces yesterday pointed to local cassava producers as the cause of water pollution there, which has killed fish and induced illness in families living along tainted streams. Nine of the businesses in Pailin’s O’Tavao commune that produce the root vegetable are ...

Three months after their community was shaken by a mass outbreak of HIV, support continues to pour in for residents of Battambang province’s Roka commune. But amid fears generated by the death of several elderly residents and the belief the funding could soon dry up, they ...

Survivors of human trafficking in South-East Asia require better access to health services, especially related to mental health, a study says. ...

Keo Chkriya was pregnant when she was sentenced to prison, on charges of drug distribution. By the time she left, she had been caring for her son in a cell for nearly two years. ...