PHNOM PENH, July 25 (Bernama) -- Some 35,710 malaria cases had been reported in the first six months of this year, a 23 per cent decrease compared with 46,360 cases in the same period last year, a report of the National Centre for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control showed on Wednesday.
China's Xinhua news agency cited the report as saying that the death toll from the disease during the January-June period this year was 28 people, a 10 per cent drop from 31 deaths in the same period last year.
Char Meng Chuor, head of the centre, said that the decrease was due to the awareness campaigns and mosquito net distributions to the disease-prone groups of people.
"Some 1.3 million mosquito nets have been distributed to vulnerable people in the third quarter (July-September) this year," he said.
Meanwhile, he explained that the death cases were due to the patients having sought private treatment and the disease could not be cured; instead, it got more serious.
"Finally, they were too late to be cured when they were admitted to state-owned health centers," he added.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease. In Cambodia, the disease often occurs during rainy season and mostly in border provinces, and forest and mountainous provinces.
The country needs US$20 million a year to achieve its goal of completely eradicating the disease by 2025.
In 2011, the country reported 62,690 cases of malaria, killing 98 people.
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