Public health
Priority health concerns
Vietnam watches out for alarming Zika virus spread
Health officials are monitoring the spread of Zika virus in other countries, saying Vietnam is also at risk. The Preventive Health Department said the virus, which has been linked to brain damage in thousands of infants in Brazil, has not been detected in Vietnam. Keep reading ...
Ministry presents five-year malaria strategy
With concerns mounting over the increasing appearance of drug resistant strains of the disease along the Thai border, an ambitious five-year plan to eliminate the deadly Plasmodium Falciparium malaria parasite in Cambodia was presented on 27 January by the Ministry of Health. The Malaria Elimination Action Framework ...
“Myanmar is still the third-most malnourished country in Southeast Asia"
The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) in Myanmar is facing a funding shortfall of $51 million to meet all the needs till the end of 2016. The organisation, which has a 250-strong staff in the country, says it provided food and cash assistance to ...
Taiwan raises travel notices after Thai case of Zika virus
Taiwan has raised travel notices for five ASEAN nations, including Thailand and the Maldives, after a northern Thai man was hospitalised in Taiwan with a confirmed case of Zika, a mosquito-borne virus. Keep reading ...
Mekong nations build defences against bird flu
The ministries of health of Laos and other countries in the Mekong Region are taking steps to prevent and control avian influenza, or bird flu, over the next two months, in anticipation of a possible outbreak. Bird flu is an infectious disease of birds caused by ...
Cambodia's contraception demand ‘unmet’
There is a significant unmet demand for modern contraception among Cambodian women, according to an annual report on family planning in 69 of the world’s poorest countries. Released this month by Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) – a global partnership between governments, NGOs and the private sector ...
Vietnam suspends vaccination plan after desperate parents go into frenzy
Vietnam has suspended the administration of an infant vaccine nationwide after hundreds of parents, trying to secure shots for their children, caused a chaotic scene in front of a medical center in Hanoi. Tran Dac Phu, head of the Preventive Health Department at the health ministry, has ...
Study links deforestation, malaria
New research conducted in Malaysia has drawn a link between deforestation and a rise in a specific strain of malaria often carried by macaques, a link the study’s lead author says could hold true for Cambodia as well. The results of the study, published in Emerging ...
Deaths in childbirth plunge
The number of mothers who died in labour has nearly halved over the past four years, down from 182 fatalities in 2011 to 100 this year, the Ministry of Health’s research commission into maternal mortality revealed on 17 December. The dramatically reduced death rate was largely ...
Women increasingly among those at risk for HIV/AIDS
A new group is increasingly at risk for contracting HIV in Myanmar: women. Even as the number of people contracting HIV has begun to decline, the virus’ prevalence is growing among women, according to health experts. Women of reproductive age – from 15 to 45 years old ...
