Saturday, August 26, 2006

Dengue fever on the rise in Cambodia

August 26, 2006

Dengue fever still poses a significant public health threat in Cambodia, according to officials from the Ministry of Health and World Health Organization (WHO), local media reported on Friday.

Between January and August this year, there were 4,945 cases of dengue infection in Cambodia with 65 fatalities, The Cambodian Press Review quoted Duong Socheat, director of the National Malaria Center, as saying at a workshop on strengthening inter- sectoral and inter-ministerial collaboration for the control of dengue fever.

The infection figures, according to Mam Bunheng, the secretary of state for Health, are higher than in 2005, although the death rate is lower. Mam Bunheng, who presided over the workshop, listed Kompong Cham, Phnom Penh, Kompong Thom and Kompong Chhnang as the most dengue-affected provinces and cities in the country.

Michael O'Leary, WHO's representative to Cambodia, informed the workshop that combating the disease required individuals, families, community groups, NGOs and local authorities to work hard together in implementing the appropriate preventative measures. Despite considerable research, there is still no vaccination for dengue, he added.

Each year some 200,000 people contract dengue in the Asia- Pacific region, 1,000 of which die. While in the world, more than 100 countries and regions are affected by the deadly disease, leaving 50 million people sick each year, said the WHO official.

Source: Xinhua

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just pave the fucken roads and bury all the open sewage canals especially in a place where many people live and work and use more piping system to move all the sewage to a treatment center!

Just a little walk around Phnom Phen and you can smell the stench from the sewage with the humidity and it makes everything as a living hell!