Cambodia's tuberculosis prevalence rate declines sharply in last decade: new survey

PHNOM PENH, Feb 08, 2012 (Xinhua) -- The tuberculosis prevalence rate in Cambodia has seen a 36 percent decline in the last decade, according to a new survey released on Wednesday.

The preliminary results of the 2nd Cambodia national TB prevalence survey found that about 171 people among 100,000 people have smear-positive tuberculosis in 2011, a 36 percent drop from 269 people among 100,000 people in 2002.

"Cambodia has seen a great success in fighting against TB in the last decade; however, the country is still one of the highest TB burden in the region and the world," Mao Tan Eang, director of National Centre for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control (CENAT) said at the survey launch.

He said the country spends around 10 million U.S. dollars a year for TB fight, adding that Cambodia has been facing a budget shortage between 30-40 percent in 2012 and 2013 due to the Global Fund's fund cancellation.

Tuberculosis Continues To Kill

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
26 March 2009

Laying in bed at the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control, thin to the tendon, Sin Pich, 49, said she decided to go to the hospital after a cough that had persisted for around a year began producing.

She’d been at the center for two months, and she was getting weaker. Doctors say she’ll survive, but not all Cambodians are so lucky.

Health officials are facing a persistence of tuberculosis, which kills up to 35 Cambodians a day. That’s roughly the same number of people who died from the disease 5 years ago, according to USAID.

USAID ranks Cambodia one of nearly 20 most-burdened countries by tuberculosis, estimating that 64 percent of all Cambodians are infected.

In 2006, around 13,000 people died of the disease, according to the agency, which announced Thursday a $77-million health initiative, a large part of which would be to fight tuberculosis.

The government says it is working to build a network of treatment centers, but about 70,000 new cases appear annually, while many of those who die are also afflicted with HIV or AIDS.

“We have had a strategy, called DOTS, since 2004,” said Team Bak Khim, deputy director of the tuberculosis center, referring to directly observed treatment over a short period of time. “In this strategy, the patient can heal 100 percent.” However, that strategy is only in 11 provinces, or 36 districts.

The government is trying to use this strategy in all the provinces, he said. The problem is people don’t come to the hospital because they live far away. “We have to reach them,” he said.

Team Bak Him said he doesn’t believe the USAID figures. In 2008, only a few hundred people died from the disease, he said.

James Nachtwey's haunting photos of XDR-TB patients in Cambodia

A rice farmer with pulmonary TB is examined during a home visit by the NGO, Cambodian Health Committee, Kompong Cham, Cambodia. (© James Nachtwey/VII)
A woman with TB meningitis is cared for by her husband in Svay Rieng Provincial Hospital, Svay Rieng, Cambodia. (© James Nachtwey/VII)
A boy experiencing severe pain from TB meningitis is comforted by his mother at Svay Rieng Provincial Hospital, Svay Rieng, Cambodia. Family members provide much of the personal care at hospitals in the developing world. (© James Nachtwey/VII)
A prisoner who was convicted of murder was moved from prison to the TB ward of Battambang Provincial Hospital, Battambang, Cambodia when he was diagnosed with TB. He is coinfected with AIDS. (© James Nachtwey/VII)

Nachtwey's Wish: Awareness of XDR-TB

October 3, 2008
By Alan Taylor
Boston.com

Click here to view all the 14 photos from James Nachtwey

Well-known and influential photojournalist James Nachtwey won the TED Prize last year, and as part of his award, he made a wish for help - help in bringing a story to light that he felt was important and underreported. The subject of this story is a new, dangerous type of tuberculosis called Extreme Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, or XDR-TB. Tuberculosis is both preventable and curable, but inadequate treatment has been driving the emergence of XDR-TB, especially in developing nations. Tuberculosis is not a disease of the past - in 2007 alone, 1.7 million people died from TB - it is the leading killer of people infected with HIV. Nachtwey's wish was that he could break this story, and demonstrate proof of the power of news photography in the digital age. Below are only 14 of many photographs Nachtwey took around the world. For all of the photos, and much more information about XDR-TB, please visit xdrtb.org.