Malaria cases last year nearly halved from 2018 in Cambodia
Doctors inspect an elderly man for malaria. KT/Chor Sokunthea. Sketched by the Pan Pacific Agency.
PHNOM PENH, Jan 6, 2020, The Khmer Times. The number of malaria cases in the Kingdom almost halved for the first 11 months last year compared to the same period in 2018, The Khmer Times reported.
Huy Rekol, National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control director, said recently that 30,163 cases of malaria were reported from January to November last year, a drop of 48 percent, from the 57,757 cases over the same period in 2018.
He noted that there have been no deaths caused by malaria since 2018.
“The Health Ministry is determined to eliminate malaria from the Kingdom by 2025, in line with a target set by the government initiative, so we will try our best to do so,” Mr Rekol said. “We believe that we are on the right track because we set a goal of having no deaths from malaria by this year but achieved it since 2018.”
He said that between 2016 and this year, the country is spending $140 million to achieve the target and will need the same amount from 2021 to 2025.
“The Minister of Health has urged and encouraged all health centre and ministry officials, as well as local and international development partners, to fully support the government’s National Malaria Elimination Strategy to make Cambodia malaria-free by 2025,” Mr Rekol noted.
He added that most Cambodians are aware of the dangers of being stricken by malaria but people working in high-risk transmission areas are still getting infected.
“They know about malaria but because they work in high-risk areas, some still become infected and the disease spreads,” Mr Rekol noted. “We are pushing harder to get them to implement measures to prevent malaria transmission, such as sleeping inside mosquito nets, go for blood tests after returning from high-risk areas and taking anti-malarial medicine.”
Last year the Health Ministry said in a statement that as one of the six countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, Cambodia continues to be committed to eliminating malaria in line with a sub-regional target to do so by 2030.
“Over the past five years, the sub-region has more than halved the number of malaria cases and reduced deaths by more than 80 percent,” the statement noted. “Cambodia has set its target to eliminate malaria in the Kingdom by 2025.”
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