Cambodia Dengue Fever Death Toll rises above 300
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Cambodia Dengue Fever Death Toll rises above 300*
16 Aug 2007 11:40:17 GMT
Source: Reuters
PHNOM PENH, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Dengue fever has killed at least 333
Cambodians this year, most of them children, and many more could die
before the rainy season ends next month, senior health officials said on
Wednesday.
The disease, which killed 116 Cambodians in 2006, has spread across the
impoverished nation and infected 31,136 people this year, most of them
in the countryside where living conditions are poor and children are
vulnerable, they said.
"Their parents do not have enough time to take care of them at home.
They are poor, they are away from home to make a living," said Ngan
Chantha, head of the country's anti-dengue programme.
More could die with the monsoon season, ideal breeding weather for the
mosquitoes which carry the disease, not due to fade until the end of
September, he said.
A publicity campaign against the disease, including admonitions to clean
containers at home every 10 days to ensure mosquitoes cannot breed in
them, has borne little fruit.
"The striking issue is villagers do not clean their containers
frequently," said Duong Socheat, director of the National Malaria Centre.
The country's four-Swiss funded hospitals have appealed for $7 million
to fight a disease that reached epidemic proportions in wealthy
Singapore as well as striking hard in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and
Indonesia.
The World Bank, the World Health Organization and the Red Cross have
provided pesticide to kill mosquitoes and the Asian Development Bank
(ADB) gave $300,000.
Cambodia, whose health care system was devastated in 30 years of civil
war, spends about $3 per person on health a year, according to the World
Bank.