Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Cambodian officials fear high dengue fever toll this year [- Not as much as they fear Global Witness' report]

June 05, 2007

Cambodian government officials fear that dengue fever could strike hard this rainy season in both urban and rural areas of Cambodia, local media said on Tuesday.

Although this year's rainy season just began, 84 have died due to the mosquito-borne disease, more than half of last year's total number of 156, Ngan Chantha, deputy director of the National Malaria Center of the Health Ministry, was quoted by English newspaper the Cambodian Daily as saying.

It is raining more this years and water has started to gather around houses, which becomes the environment for the disease to spread, the paper quoted local doctors as saying.

The dengue fever, which is passed throughout a community in a cycle from mosquito to human and back again, spreads easily in Phnom Penh, Kandal province and Kompong Cham province, as the rise in urban population brings more people in contact with the virus, said the paper.

Over 6,000 people have died of the disease this year all over the world, according to statistics from the World Health Organization.

Source: Xinhua

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Meeh Yeakkeney Chkout (Socheata),
Global Witness don't bite. They
just bark rubbishes.

Anyway, I propose the ministry of
health to start a new commitee of
experts to handle all mosquito
issues since this problem is going
to be with us for a while. We need
to find out which species of
mosquito is bugging us. There are
hundreds. Some mosquito is a
predetor of other mosquitoes.
For now, just use periodic
pesticide spraying from a plane
or choppers and then cut down on
it as we find a more natural ways
to control the specy that giving
us problem.