DPA
Phnom Penh - Officials in a Cambodian province close to the capital said Wednesday that seven children had died of dengue fever in one village in recent weeks and they were bracing for more deaths as the rainy season set in. Meng Sothy, deputy director of Kampong Speu district hospital, 40 kilometres south-west of the capital, said the seven, whose ages were not given, had all come from the remote Borset village and had died despite being transferred to children's hospitals in Phnom Penh.
"We have seven children dead so far, but these are just the ones who have been reported and we have no idea how many have contracted the disease," he said.
He said officials were mounting an education campaign to try to educate villagers on how to contain the mosquito-borne virus, which kills mostly the very young and the elderly and whose symptoms include high fever and intense muscle and joint pain. The virus often kills by destroying blood platelets, resulting in massive haemorrhaging.
Kampong Speu hospital director Huot Thorn said the disease was a sad fact of life for rural Cambodians, especially during the monsoon season when the mosquitoes bred prolifically.
On Wednesday, Dr Beat Richner, a Swiss national who runs four Kantha Bopha hospitals in Cambodia, which provide free health care to children, placed a full-page advertisement in the English-language Cambodia Daily newspaper, calling dengue fever "an epidemic."
Richner said his hospitals had treated 1,254 cases of severe dengue fever in children in the first week of June alone and appealed to the Cambodian government and international donors for aid to assist his hospitals to cope with the problem.
King Norodom Sihamoni attended a gala in honour of the Kantha Bopha hospitals during his recent state visit to Switzerland.
"We have seven children dead so far, but these are just the ones who have been reported and we have no idea how many have contracted the disease," he said.
He said officials were mounting an education campaign to try to educate villagers on how to contain the mosquito-borne virus, which kills mostly the very young and the elderly and whose symptoms include high fever and intense muscle and joint pain. The virus often kills by destroying blood platelets, resulting in massive haemorrhaging.
Kampong Speu hospital director Huot Thorn said the disease was a sad fact of life for rural Cambodians, especially during the monsoon season when the mosquitoes bred prolifically.
On Wednesday, Dr Beat Richner, a Swiss national who runs four Kantha Bopha hospitals in Cambodia, which provide free health care to children, placed a full-page advertisement in the English-language Cambodia Daily newspaper, calling dengue fever "an epidemic."
Richner said his hospitals had treated 1,254 cases of severe dengue fever in children in the first week of June alone and appealed to the Cambodian government and international donors for aid to assist his hospitals to cope with the problem.
King Norodom Sihamoni attended a gala in honour of the Kantha Bopha hospitals during his recent state visit to Switzerland.
1 comment:
Richner!!! Thank for running the Kantha Bopha, but there are so many problems inside the hospitals. Doctors/nurses, security are rude when speaking to patients. I can say that if patients have chances, they should go to clinics instead. I hate that management and system.
Richner!!!!! you please create a suggestion box, phone numbers and email address in order to let people complaint the direct person(doctors/nurses and security guards).
I hope you can do that!
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