Priority health concerns
Maternal and child health
Child in Yangon tested for suspected Zika
Test results are expected on November 18 or tomorrow on a suspected Zika virus case, according to the Department of Public Health. A six-year-old child from Lanmadaw township is the latest to undergo testing after exhibiting symptoms commonly seen with the Zika virus, said Dr Than ...
Swiss-Lao project promotes newborn care
The Swiss-Lao Hospital Project has provided medical equipment worth about US$1 million for Lao hospitals, aiming to improve conditions for new mothers and newborns around the country. Deputy Director General of the Mother and Newborn Hospital, Dr Sivanesay Chanthavongsouk, said this week the equipment would help ...
Cambodia at ‘high’ risk of Zika outbreak in 2017
Amid reports of the emergence of the Zika virus in Myanmar and the discovery of the first birth defect believed linked to the virus in Vietnam, two researchers with Phnom Penh’s Pasteur Institute have concluded that Cambodia is at high risk of its own Zika ...
Doctors say survey underestimates number of women dying from botched abortions
Women denied the right to an abortion are injuring and killing themselves in an attempt to end their pregnancies, doctors and specialists say. In Yangon’s Central Women’s Hospital, it is estimated that from one-third to half of pregnancy deaths occur because of botched abortions, often ...
300 million children live in areas with extreme air pollution, data reveals
Global study reveals huge number of children breathing toxic fumes more than six times over safe limits, while billions are affected by air pollution that exceeds guidelines. Three hundred million of the world’s children live in areas with extreme air pollution, where toxic fumes are more ...
KOICA to fund US$7 million maternal, child healthcare project
Experts from the Korea International Cooperation Agency last week conducted a preliminary study on improving access to maternal and child healthcare services in villages through mobile clinics, under the Korea Aid Project. Aligned with the strategies of the Lao government on public health and Korea’s Better ...
Child nutrition still lagging in Cambodia: study
The government must boost efforts to eradicate malnutrition among Cambodia’s women and children, many of whom are still chronically malnourished despite improvements in recent years, according to a new report in the International Journal of Food and Nutritional Science. Basing the study on a review of ...
Officials ramping up efforts to prevent Zika
With Zika cases on the rise in neighbouring countries, Cambodian health officials have ordered provinces with a high mosquito density, and those close to the Thai border, to spray pesticides to eliminate Aedes mosquitoes potentially carrying the virus. As of yesterday, no Zika cases – ...
Misconceptions an obstacle to contraception use: study
The greatest obstacle to increased contraception use in Cambodia isn’t the price of birth control or the social stigma around using it, a new study has found, it is fear of side effects. What’s more, this fear may arise from the many disparate medical systems operating ...
How poverty affects the brain
The video tells the story of Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Pakistan who at 15 survived being shot in the head by the Taliban while riding a bus in 2012. “I want to get my education, and I want to become a ...