Health care policy and administration

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. ...

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. ...

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 ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen admitted Tuesday that he made an error in judgment when he doubted the veracity of a growing HIV outbreak in Battambang province’s Roka commune in December. ...

The minister of health once again urged his subordinates and local authorities yesterday to shut down the country’s unlicensed clinics and doctors to prevent another HIV outbreak. ...

A woman accused of organ trafficking was tried at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Monday for allegedly persuading her two cousins and a neighbor to sell their kidneys in Thailand last year. Anti-human trafficking police arrested Nhem Sinuon, 29, in Phnom Penh’s Chroy Changva district ...

A 69-year-old man who was among the more than 240 villagers to test positive for HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune died on Saturday, local health officials said Monday. ...

A contagious mystery ailment has led to 13 hospitalisations in Pursat province since Tuesday, when a family of five began suffering vomiting, diarrhoea and fainting, quickly spreading it to others who came into contact with them. ...

Several elderly HIV-positive villagers in Battambang’s Roka commune are seriously ill, local authorities have said, with some of their families having called monks to bless them as they believe death may be imminent. Five people living in the commune have died since a massive HIV outbreak ...

Physicians are scrambling to update treatments to combat the growing threat caused by a new strain of malaria that is unique to Cambodia and resistant to the drug that dictates whether patients are ultimately cured. ...

Amid an ongoing investigation into the massive HIV outbreak in Battambang’s Roka commune, health officials yesterday said that they are requesting that auto-disabled syringes be exclusively used for administering injections in Cambodia. ...

The government on Saturday announced a plan to decrease the number of maternal deaths in the Kingdom by 50 per cent in the future by promoting countrywide pregnancy-related preventative measures among women. In the recently released preliminary results of the 2014 Cambodia Demographic and Health ...

The parents of a man who died at the Svay Rieng provincial referral hospital of wounds sustained in a motorbike crash say their son might have survived if doctors had not been absent from work celebrating Chinese New Year, and are planning to file a ...

Almost 450 people were rounded up from the capital’s streets last year and sent to the notorious Prey Speu social affairs centre, where in November a man died after being denied medical treatment, according to an annual report from Phnom Penh’s Social Affairs Department. ...

The Kingdom has seen vast improvements in nutrition, general health and mortality rates over the past four years, according to the preliminary results of the fourth Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey (CDHS) released yesterday. ...

Battambang provincial authorities have ordered nine unlicensed doctors to shut down their home-care practices in the province, including six in Sangke district’s Roka commune, where more than 230 residents have tested positive for HIV over the past three months. ...

Pharmacists in Cambodia have a particular affinity for prescribing antibiotics, so much so that resistance to the drugs has become a public health problem worthy of a national response. ...

The ministries of health and interior introduced a joint strategy yesterday to curb illegal medical practices and the use of fraudulent health products. ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng announced yesterday he has proposed that a reserve budget be used to help victims of the mass HIV outbreak in Battambang province’s Roka village, as he vowed to strengthen health services across the country. Speaking at a press conference following questioning by ...

Over 470,000 units of unauthorised or expired drugs were confiscated during a crackdown on unlicensed medical facilities in Siem Reap City this week, according to provincial police. The inspections of health facilities started on Friday with city economic police working with the provincial health department to ...

Health Minister Mam Bunheng has been summoned for questioning next week by the National Assembly’s health commission over the outbreak of HIV among villagers in Battambang province’s Ro­ka commune, the commission’s secretary-general said Friday. ...

In a small village in Cambodia’s west, a tragic tale of  international significance has caught the local authorities off-guard. An unlicensed doctor has been charged with causing an outbreak of HIV and murder after lax practices resulted in at least 201 people contracting the potentially ...

Plans for a universal health care system will be included in the 10-year strategy to strengthen Cambodia’s social welfare, according to a government official, as a new report reveals almost three-quarters of Cambodians lack any legal health coverage. The study, released this week by the International ...