Social development
Public health
Vietnamese ignore health risks, catch fish from dioxin-polluted lakes for sale
Fish buyers never know that fish may have been caught illegally, from lakes heavily contaminated by extremely dangerous chemicals. Bien Hoa airbase, which is around 30 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, is one of the sites with the severest and longest lasting dioxin pollution in the ...
Number of AIDS deaths among young Asians doubles over past decade: U.N.
The estimated number of adolescents dying of AIDS in the Asia Pacific region has more than doubled since 2005, experts said on 30 November, warning of a “hidden epidemic”. UNICEF urged Asian countries to improve teenagers’ access to testing, saying many young people do not know ...
Unprescribed antibiotics is available anywhere in Vietnam: survey
A survey by the health ministry has found that misuse of antibiotics is rampant, with most pharmacies not requiring prescriptions to sell them. The ministry’s Examination and Treatment Department said 98 percent of drugstores in urban areas and 91 percent in rural areas sell antibiotics without ...
Gains, pitfalls in HIV battle
As nations around the globe mark World AIDS Day, Cambodia’s first lady, Bun Rany, has appealed to Cambodians to do their part in helping the UN reach its goal of eradicating HIV entirely within 15 years. Local experts, however, say progress in some high-risk communities has ...
UN warns of need to boost immunisation
The United Nations has called for an expansion of immunisation to combat the threat of polio and other preventable diseases, after two cases of a vaccine-derived form of the virus were detected in northern Rakhine State. The World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund said ...
Rape victims failed by corrupt system: report
Countless rape victims, many of them children, have been failed by widespread flaws in Cambodia’s justice system, which have led to a “disturbingly low” number of convictions, a new study by the rights group Licadho has found. In its report, Getting Away With It: The Treatment ...
Youths call for faster passage of alcohol law
A Cambodian youth group has urged the government to end its foot dragging over a law to impose an age limit on consuming and buying alcohol and other restrictions aimed at reducing drinking. Keep reading ...
Overuse of antibiotics killing Thais at high rate
Up to 38,000 Thais could be dying from antibiotic-resistant bacteria annually because of overprescription and the prevalence of the drugs in food and the water supply, research has found. Drug System Monitoring Mechanism Development Centre manager Niyada Kiatying-Angsulee said her research found Thailand had a worryingly high ...
Fewer Vietnam traffic accidents in 2015
Vietnam has seen a sharp decrease in the number and the severity of traffic accidents in recent years. Compared to 2011, the number of traffic accidents in 2015 has gone down by 51 per cent, the number of fatalities and injured down by 24 per ...
Civil servants among biggest drinkers in Vietnam: survey
Civil servants and young people are the biggest drinkers in Vietnam, according to a recent survey by the Institute of Sociology in Hanoi. The institute on 25 November released the results of the survey, conducted in Hanoi and Lao Cai Province in the north, Da Nang City ...
