Priority health concerns

Health officials are to continue their polio vaccination campaign beyond the official end of the program, which was on 22 February, as it emerged that even in downtown Yangon less than half the under-fives eligible had been inoculated. The US$4 million Supplementary Polio Immunisation Campaign targeted 4.6 ...

As a Kandal village braces for an investigation into a cluster of HIV cases, the US Centers for Disease Control on 19 February published a new report on the now-infamous HIV outbreak in Battambang’s Roka commune, pointing to high demand for medical injections and a lack ...

A patient who has been confirmed to have swine flu is receiving treatment at Cambodia’s Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, though hospital and Health Ministry officials on 20 February downplayed the significance of the case. A 2009 swine flu pandemic saw close to 500 people infected in Cambodia, with five ...

Fol­lowing the discovery of an apparent outbreak of HIV in Peam village, Kandal province, Cambodia, the head of the Ponhea Leu district referral hospital refuted accusations from infected residents that he was the source of the virus. Kouy Bunthoeun, director of the provincial health department, said ...

Health officials are drawing up plans to help protect Myanmar against the Zika virus. Dr Soe Lwin Nyein, director general of the department of public health, said earlier this week that nationwide guidelines would be issued soon. A symposium on Zika virus infection held at the ...

A new Cambodian maternal-health initiative is seeking to patch a persistent knowledge gap among new mothers by providing information via mobile phone alerts on optimal post-natal care during the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life. Cambodia’s national infant mortality rate, despite improvements, remains stubbornly high ...

Striking what they hope will be a death blow against polio, Myanmar health officials are preparing for a nationwide assault. The Supplementary Polio Immunisation Campaign will take place from 20 to 22 February, National Immunisation Day. The campaign will target 4.6 million under-fives, administering both oral ...

Vientiane authorities are seeking measures to prevent dengue at the initial stages as the disease may return following the severe outbreaks in the country from 2010 to 2013. The authorities held a meeting last week to learn lessons from previous years in controlling the epidemic and ...

After nine months without medical care, the posting of a single doctor to a “leprosy village” in Yangon is only a small consolation for its nearly 200 residents. For months, the villagers depended on donors to provide medicine and on health assistants or volunteers to administer ...

Following the announcement on 27 January of an ambitious new five-year plan to eliminate malaria in Cambodia, National Centre for Malaria officials and donors met again on 28 January, this time to discuss patching up a $22.8 million budget gap to fund the strategy’s first two years. Financial ...