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Mar 20, 2012, 11:09:00 PM3/20/12
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Dear Colleagues,
Find an article below on the increase in Dengue fever in Cambodia. MOH points to the lack of sanitation and poor hygiene as one of the reason.
Best regards,
Phyrum
HNP: Health Ministry Issues Alert Over Dengue -The Cambodia Daily (Cambodia)March 23, 2012
Dengue fever infections have almost tripled over the first 10 weeks of the year compared to the same period last year, a government health official said yesterday.
There have been 684 dengue cases and three deaths so far this year, up from 232 cases and one death in the same period last year, according to Ngan Chantha, director of .the Ministry of Health's National Dengue Control Program.
"We are putting out an alert It is everybody's responsibility. The local authorities in particular have to make sure that their communities are clean," Mr. Chantha said
A number of factors could have contributed to the increase, most of them due to the rapid rate of development in the country, according to Mr. Chantha.
"The country is developing, but the people's knowledge cannot catch up with the fast development," Mr. Chantha said, citing lack of sanitation, poor hygiene, deforestation, increased rainfall and migration as reasons for the increase.
"Density of the mosquitoes is increasing, and infection is spreading fast," he added. "Construction is increasing. Because of development, people are moving from one area to another, and then live in places with a lack of hygiene."
Last year saw a total 15,980 cases of dengue and 73 deaths.
The government has prepared 105 tons of abate—a chemical used to kill mosquitoes—and called provincial officials from across the country to come and collect it for distribution The government is also preparing a media blitz to educate people about the problem, he added.
"We are meeting with four television stations, three newspapers and two radio stations tomorrow to discuss broadcasting an awareness campaign," Mr. Chantha said.
However, Denis Laurent, deputy director of the Kantha Bopha Foundation, said he did not believe the dengue situation to be particularly serious at the moment.
"In Siem Reap today, we have 17 cases of dengue hospitalized, and in Phnom Penh we have 22, including seven new admissions," Dr. Laurent said adding that this was a small percentage of total admissions.
"We cannot tell you if it’s an epidemic or not. It’s not alarming, but we have to be prudent," he said. (Additional reporting by Kate Bartlett)
Details:
Document Title:Health Ministry Issues Alert Over Dengue
Document Source: The Cambodia Daily (Cambodia)
Document Date: 3/21/2012
Phyrum KOV (Mr.)
Country Coordinator
Water and Sanitation Program (www.wsp.org)
111E2 Norodom Blvd, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Mail: 113 Norodom Blvd, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Tel: +855-23-217 304 ext. 100
----- Forwarded by Phyrum Kov/Person/World Bank on 03/21/2012 10:06 AM -----
| Sophinith Sam Oeun/Person/World Bank |
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| 03/21/2012 09:55 AM |
| Cambodia Media Monitoring |
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Cambodia Media Monitoring for 03/21/2012
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FYI: Japanese aid tabbed for health, roadwork -The Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia)March 23, 2012
IN A ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation yesterday, the Japanese government officially granted aid of 974 million yen (about US$12.2 million) to the Cambodian government.
The Honorable Masafumi Kuroki, Japanese ambassador to Cambodia, said his country had made the donation to help accelerate economic and social development in Cambodia in order to improve the living standards and welfare of its people.
The funds will be focused on two specific areas of spending: health and transport infrastructure.
The upgrading and renovating of medical equipment and supplies at hospitals both in Phnom Penh and the provinces will account for $4.7 million of the total, while the remaining $7.5 million will be spent on bridge and road renovation, repairing the damage caused by floods in 2011.
"I believe that these two grants will contribute to the economic and social development of Cambodia," the ambassador said at the ceremony, adding, "I sincerely hope that they will also strengthen the friendly relations between Japan and the Kingdom of Cambodia."
Ouch Borith, secretary of state at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, confirmed that the grant dedicated to health spending would be used for buying modern medical equipment such as X-ray and echography machines as well as patient monitoring equipment, and that the remainder of the budget would purchase the vehicles, needed for road construction.
"We are very happy and firmly believe that the livelihood and welfare of our people will be improved by the two grants" he said. He also echoed the ambassador's belief that the gift of aid will strengthen and develop the tie of friendship between both countries.
Details:
Document Title:Japanese aid tabbed for health, roadwork
Document Source: The Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia)
Document Date: 3/21/2012
WB Env: Fight Illegal Logging From Top, World Bank Says -The Cambodia Daily (Cambodia)March 23, 2012
Echoing longstanding calls from conservation groups, the World Bank says in a new report today that governments need to look past low-level criminals to tackle illegal logging and to follow the money the illicit trade generates instead.
That trade of illegal logging generates up to $15 billion a year globally, according to the report, titled "Justice for Forests: Improving Criminal Justice Efforts to Combat Illegal Logging," which draws on examples from Cambodia and other countries.
"Law enforcement needs to look past low-level criminals and look at where the profits from illegal logging go," it said. "By following the money trail and using tools developed in more than 170 countries to go after 'dirty money,' criminal justice can pursue criminal organizations engaged in large scale illegal logging and confiscate ill-gotten gains."
"We need to fight organized crime in illegal logging the way we go after gangsters selling drugs or racketeering," Jean Pesme, head of the World Bank's financial market integrity team, said in a statement.
Among its key recommendations, the World Bank calls for an "integrated criminal justice strategy" to go after high-level corruption, better cooperation among domestic agencies and increased use of money-laundering laws.
The World Bank report cites some bright spots in Cambodia, including a vast illegal logging operation uncovered in Virachey National Park in 2004. The courts eventually convicted some government employees. But some of the highest-ranking officials implicated in the scheme remain at large.
Authorities regularly confiscate large caches of illegally logged timber but make relatively few arrests, often claiming that the loggers are nowhere to be found or have escaped. Even when arrests do follow, conservation groups complain that those apprehended are only the loggers or drivers and never the "big fish" behind the operations, blaming corruption.
"Illegal logging is involved with the big people," said Chut Wutty, director of the Natural Resources Protection Group.
Mr. Wutty said the World Bank should do more to back the grassroots groups—increasingly frustrated with authorities—who take it upon themselves to patrol their local forests and face the illegal loggers themselves. As for the World Bank's latest report, he held out little hope of seeing authorities take its advice. "I don't think that’s going to happen because we don't have any help from the outside. They [the government] have no pressure from the outside," he said.
Until 2005, the UK-based conservation group Global Witness served as the country's official independent forest monitor, but the government severed that relationship after a number of highly critical reports from the group. A subsequent Global Witness report, released in 2007 and immediately banned by the government, implicated some of the highest officials and relatives of Prime Minister Hun Sen in logging.
"They can kill the rat or the dog, but they cannot kill the elephant or tiger," Mr. Wutty said.
Sam Sokphal, secretary of state at the Justice Ministry, said the courts could only investigate the cases they receive, and referred further questions to the Ministry of Agriculture.
"Unless they petition or request the ministry to open the case, the Ministry of Justice has nothing to do," he said.
Officials at the Agriculture Ministry and the Forestry Administration could not be reached.
Details:
Document Title:Fight Illegal Logging From Top, World Bank Says
Document Source: The Cambodia Daily (Cambodia)
Document Date: 3/21/2012
- "...petermarch 23, 2012echoing longstanding calls from conservation groups, the World Bank says in a new report today that governments need to look past low-level criminals to tackle...."
HNP: Health Ministry Issues Alert Over Dengue -The Cambodia Daily (Cambodia)March 23, 2012
Dengue fever infections have almost tripled over the first 10 weeks of the year compared to the same period last year, a government health official said yesterday.
There have been 684 dengue cases and three deaths so far this year, up from 232 cases and one death in the same period last year, according to Ngan Chantha, director of .the Ministry of Health's National Dengue Control Program.
"We are putting out an alert It is everybody's responsibility. The local authorities in particular have to make sure that their communities are clean," Mr. Chantha said
A number of factors could have contributed to the increase, most of them due to the rapid rate of development in the country, according to Mr. Chantha.
"The country is developing, but the people's knowledge cannot catch up with the fast development," Mr. Chantha said, citing lack of sanitation, poor hygiene, deforestation, increased rainfall and migration as reasons for the increase.
"Density of the mosquitoes is increasing, and infection is spreading fast," he added. "Construction is increasing. Because of development, people are moving from one area to another, and then live in places with a lack of hygiene."
Last year saw a total 15,980 cases of dengue and 73 deaths.
The government has prepared 105 tons of abate—a chemical used to kill mosquitoes—and called provincial officials from across the country to come and collect it for distribution The government is also preparing a media blitz to educate people about the problem, he added.
"We are meeting with four television stations, three newspapers and two radio stations tomorrow to discuss broadcasting an awareness campaign," Mr. Chantha said.
However, Denis Laurent, deputy director of the Kantha Bopha Foundation, said he did not believe the dengue situation to be particularly serious at the moment.
"In Siem Reap today, we have 17 cases of dengue hospitalized, and in Phnom Penh we have 22, including seven new admissions," Dr. Laurent said adding that this was a small percentage of total admissions.
"We cannot tell you if it’s an epidemic or not. It’s not alarming, but we have to be prudent," he said. (Additional reporting by Kate Bartlett)
Details:
Document Title:Health Ministry Issues Alert Over Dengue
Document Source: The Cambodia Daily (Cambodia)
Document Date: 3/21/2012
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