Malaria causes nearly 300 deaths in Cambodia in 2009

PHNOM PENH, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian government said Monday that malaria, one of the country's deadly diseases has caused nearly 300 deaths in Cambodia in 2009.

Duong Socheat, director of National Malaria Center said some 280 Cambodians died from malaria last year, a sharp increase from a year earlier that recorded only about 200.

He said the number of infection by the disease was also a big jump from more than 50,000 in 2008 to about 80,000 in 2009.

He blamed the sharp increase of the infections and the deaths by the mosquito-transmitted disease to the early rainfalls and the migration of people to the disease infected areas.

Six of the country's 24 provinces are considered as the areas severely affected by the disease. Those provinces are identified as Kompong Cham, Koh Kong, Stung Treng, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, and Kratie.

Duong Socheat, meanwhile, blamed the late arrivals of mosquito distributions to the areas.

Cambodia's Millennium Development Goal target for malaria fatalities is 0.1 per cent by 2015.

Malaria deaths up in Cambodia jobs crisis

Aug 19, 2009
Matt Conway
ABC Radio Australia

Malaria deaths are up by more than half in Cambodia, and the global economic crisis is getting some of the blame.

The Cambodian health ministry says fatal malaria cases rose by 58 percent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2008.

Authorities cite possible contributing factors as early rains, and late arrival of mosquito nets from the government for the wet season.

Dr Duong Socheat, director of the national centre of parasitology and malaria, told Radio Australia's Connect Asia: "This year the rains started in April but the nets came out in June, so it was a bit late to protect the people."

Dried up

But significantly, in the financial crisis job opportunities in Cambodia's cities have dried up and that has forced many workers to migrate to remote forest areas on the Cambodia-Thai border, where there is work.

But that is also where there is a higher risk of getting malaria.

Dr Socheat says: "This year we have had a lot of migrants moving from the east to the west, so it is a big problem for the people who don't have the immunity at all for malaria, and they contract malaria very quickly."

It is not just those lacking immunity who are falling victim to the parasite, which may be getting stronger against medication.

Resistance

A study published by the New England Journal of Medicine says malaria parasites in western Cambodia have become resistant to Artemisinin, the drug most commonly used as a first-line treatment.

But Dr Habib Najibullah, from the World Health Organisation in Cambodia, believes more cases are being reported because of better collection of data.

Dr Najibullah says the methods of recording malaria data have improved greatly, meaning more cases are being identified - and that in itself is one reason for the rising figures.

Sharp rise in Malaria deaths in Cambodia

Tuesday, August 18, 2009
ABC Radio Australia

The number of reported Malaria fatalities in Cambodia has almost doubled since the start of the year, with authorities citing early rains and the delayed distribution of mosquito nets as possible reasons for the increase. But some of the blame has also gone to the global financial crisis.

Presenter: Matt Conway
Speakers: Dr Duong Socheat, director, National Centre of Parasitology and Malaria, Cambodia; Dr Habib Najibullah, World Health Organisation, Cambodia

Click here to listen to the audio program (Windows Media)

CONWAY: Cambodia has tried desperately to fend off the malaria parasite for decades and in recent years has appeared to be making some progress.

Efforts by Cambodia's National Malaria Control Program have led to a reduction of malaria cases, but the number of reported actual deaths is on the rise.

The Cambodian health ministry says the number of fatal malaria cases rose by 58 per cent in the first six months of this year as compared to the same six month period in 2008.

And it could be because the Cambodian government was slow to distribute mosquito nets in time for the wet season.

Dr Duong Socheat is the director of the national centre of Parasitology and Malaria.

SOCHEAT: This year the rains started in April but the nets came out in June, so it was a bit late to protect the people.

Dr Socheat says the lack of nets in areas where the mosquito population is high is the reason for some of the deaths - but that's not the only reason.

Job opportunities in the cities have dried up - partly because of the global financial downturn - and that's forced many workers to migrate to remote forrest areas on the Cambodian Thai border - where there is work.

But that's also where there's a higher risk of getting malaria.

SOCHEAT: This year we have also had a lot of migrants moving from the east to the west, so it is a big problem for the people who don't have the immunity at all for malaria, and they contract malaria very quickly.

CONWAY: And it's not just those lacking immunity that are falling victim to the parasite.

A study published by the new england journal of medicine says Malaria parasites in western Cambodia have become resistant to the drug most commonly used as a first line treatment.

The study says resistance to Artemisinin is becoming more common and the drug could become obsolete, putting even more lives at risk.

Dr Habib Najibullah from the World Health Organisation in Cambodia explains:

NAJIBULLAH: Basically after about 36 to 40 hours normally if you use Artemisinin it should disappear, but when you have longer parasite clearance times, meaning they are still present in the blood a long time after taking the drug, there is evidence of resistance, just germs develop resistance against antibiotics.

However he says there's no cause for alarm because the figures are slightly distorted.

Dr Najibullah says the methods of recording malaria related data have greatly improved vastly, meaning that more cases are being identified - and that in itself is one reason for the rising figures.

NAJIBULLAH: Now as more people are aware of Malaria - if you have fever you might have malaria as a disease - more people are being referred to hospitals and clinics where diagnosis can be done and as you know we can see if there are large amounts of parasites in the blood this person more than likely has malaria so we need to treat this person, but also some people arrive too late so that person gets noted down as a malaria fatality.

But, still, the number of fatalities from malaria is going up, and medical experts will want to be just as quick to step up the speed at which people are treated.