News

In little more than a year, 16 Cambodians are known to have died from the human form of avian influenza H5N1, the highest number of fatalities in the world. Experts have met in Phnom Penh to try to work out why. The latest victim of ...

Cambodia continues to shoulder a disproportionate percentage of the world’s tuberculosis victims, with a higher prevalence rate of the extremely contagious respiratory disease than anywhere outside of South Africa, according to the World Health Organization. With the assistance of free screenings and free treatment, the Kingdom ...

A 2-year-old girl from southwestern Kampot province died of H5N1 human avian influenza on Friday, bringing the number of cases to nine so far this year, said a joint statement from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Cambodian Health Ministry on Monday. ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

Trash collectors were working overtime Thursday to clean the vast piles of garbage that had accumulated in Phnom Penh this week after their four-day strike for higher wages. Although workers returned to their duties after agreeing to a pay rise of between $20 and $25 per ...

The Ministry of Health has moved to calm public fears over the safety of the measles and rubella (MR) vaccine, which was administered to 4.5 million Cambodian children in the last three months of 2013, as rumors circulate that it poses sinister health risks, according ...

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 ...

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) ...

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 ...

As temperatures drop during the cool season, children, infants and the elderly should take extra measures to ward off common seasonal illnesses, officials from the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday. In a press release issued by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization’s ...

An investigation by BBC news program Panorama into the misuse of Global Fund aid to Cambodia has claimed that the Fund “watered down” a report released last month, which exposed a network of corruption in Cambodia’s health sector. But Panorama, which obtained a leaked copy of the original ...

The battle against landmines could soon have an unlikely new weapon after a pioneering Belgian NGO signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government on Monday to begin testing teams of sharp-sniffing rodents in Cambodia, with the goal of pitching them into the ongoing ...

More than 1,000 people marched to the Kompong Thom provincial referral hospital on Saturday to mark World Diabetes Day and raise awareness of the chronic disease, which affects 3 percent of Cambodians and is increasing due to changing diets. Saturday’s event was organized by Mopotsyo, a ...

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Thursday denied reports that its suspension of all contracts with two major mosquito net suppliers found to have bribed Cambodian officials would cause a shortage in the worldwide supply of the critical malaria deterrent, but ...

The Cambodian Ministry of Heath (MOH) reported today the confirmation of two additional of human H5N1 avian influenza cases, the 25th and 26th cases of 2013, according to a Joint Press Release from the MOH and the World Health Organization (WHO) dated Nov. 14. According to ...

A ten-year-old boy died of bird flu on Saturday, bringing the death toll of the fatal disease to 13 in Cambodia so far this year, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said. “We regret to announce that the boy passed away in Kantha Bopha Hospital this ...