Priority health concerns
Malaria
Cambodia seals health pacts with China
Cambodia and China signed agreements on December 6 to build capacity in Cambodia’s health services, expand technology and fight the spread of diseases. After the official signing of four agreements, Health Minister Mam Bun Heng said the Chinese help would include preventing the spread of threats ...
Experts wary of fish to fight dengue
The National Dengue Control Program, a department under the Health Ministry, remains skeptical in the implementation of a new dengue-prevention method, citing concerns about the program’s long-term sustainability.Despite a Malaria Consortium pilot project – which uses guppy fish to eat mosquito larvae to stem the ...
ADB loan targets health infrastructure
Myanmar is set to receive a portion of a US$117 million Asian Development Bank loan aimed at combating emerging infectious diseases. The Greater Mekong Subregion Health Security Project will target outbreaks in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The loan is meant to boost access to ...
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 ...
Climate change threatens to double malaria risk from African dams, say researchers
The number of Africans at risk of malaria who live near dams will nearly double to 25 million by 2080 as areas where the disease is not currently present will become transmission zones due to climate change, researchers said on Monday. Without prevention measures, the number ...
Health ministry warns of a spike in dengue
Large outbreaks of the mosquito-borne virus happen every three to five years. In February, the National Malaria Center observed that dengue cases reported in January were similar to those recorded in 2007 and 2012, when the country last saw dengue epidemics. Dr. Sovann said the ministry ...
Thailand struggles with chronic resistant malaria
Thailand has a special spot on the global malaria map: It has always been the first territory to develop drug resistant new types of the disease. Resistance to the anti-malarial drug chloroquine first emerged in Trat’s Bo Rai district and Chanthaburi’s Pong Nam Ron and Soi ...
Health Ministry acknowledges ‘complications’ in nod to CNM graft
The Ministry of Health this week called for closer oversight of contract employees and acknowledged “inappropriate phenomena” in paperwork filed by mid-level officials, an admission that comes just over a month after evidence came to light of widespread graft in Cambodia’s National Malaria Centre. The letter, ...
In fight against malaria, NGO explores clothes that bite back
Health specialists met in Yangon on 3 March to discuss insect-fighting clothes as a way of eliminating malaria in Myanmar. NGO Malaria Consortium has been testing its insect-treated arsenal with a local at-risk group: rubber tappers in Thanbyuzayat who work in plantations at night when infective mosquitoes ...
Next step in malaria strategy: paying for it
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 ...