Public health

After social media users criticised the Ministry of Health for a Zika false alarm over the weekend, the ministry’s Department of Communicable Diseases pointed the finger at the Pasteur Institute for the misinformation. The ministry and the World Health Organization on November 18 issued a ...

As the commission tasked with reviewing hydropower projects along the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady River submitted its first report to the president this past week, Chinese state media has assured its nation of the ongoing “friendly and cooperative” Sino-Myanmar relationship. The China News article, ...

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 ...

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 ...

The government and international organisations with a presence in Laos have held a pre-consultation on the Sustainable Development Goals in preparation for the 2016 Round Table Implementation Meeting to be held from November 24-25 in Vientiane province. The 2016 Round Table Implementation Meeting SDG Pre-consultation took ...

Anti-surrogacy advocates have welcomed the government’s recent stance to ban surrogacy in Cambodia, though legal experts have warned that the shady practice could still continue if the prohibition is not enshrined in law. In a ministry directive, or prakas, signed October 24, Health Minister Mam ...

The Ministry of Health, in cooperation with various development partners, on November 3 held a meeting in Vientiane to prepare for a countrywide polio vaccination campaign. The polio vaccination project is supported by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation. The meeting was attended by health officials ...

The United States government has provided US$3.7 million or about 30 billion kip for the construction of the Lao-American Nutrition Institute in Dongphosy village, Hadxaifong district, Vientiane. A groundbreaking ceremony for the Lao-American Nutrition Institute took place in Dongphosy village on November 2, attended by Minister ...

Seventeen people have tested positive for the Zika virus in HCM City as of October 31, according to the city-based Pasteur Institute. They were detected through an epidemic surveillance system the local Department of Health has put in place. Trần Đắc Phu, head of the ...

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 ...