Phnom Penh - The number of Cambodians infected with
malaria and
dengue fever rose sharply last year, government figures showed Tuesday, with increased mobility of people partly to blame for the increase in the mosquito-borne illnesses. The Health Ministry reported dengue fever cases were up 22 per cent from 2008 to more than 11,000 last year.
Although full-year figures for malaria were not available, preliminary figures released Tuesday for the 11 months to November revealed 69,280 malaria cases, or nearly one-fifth higher than the 58,887 recorded for the whole of 2008.
"We have a lot of movement of population, especially headed to the west of the country, which led to more cases [of malaria]," said Dr Duong Socheat, the director of the country's malaria programme.
The figures showed that 238 Cambodians died from malaria in the 11 months to November, compared with 209 for all of 2008.
The rise in infections and deaths followed reports in recent years that
health workers had found that the malaria strain in western
Cambodia had developed growing resistance to artemisinin, the key drug used to treat the parasitic disease.
Duong said the Health Ministry remained concerned at the potential treatment problem and is working closely with the World Health Organization on it, but he said the higher numbers do not necessarily imply a worsening situation and are at least in part the result of improved recognition and reporting of malaria.
Dr Ngan Chantha, who heads the Health Ministry's dengue fever programme, said the number of people infected with the virus rose to 11,652 last year. Thirty-seven patients died, which was a significant reduction from 2008 when 65 died.
Ngan said improved targeting by the government and health workers, including
training medical staff to recognize symptoms and a rapid-reaction programme to target dengue outbreaks, had contributed to the lower death rate.
And he blamed the rise in infections on a number of factors, including higher temperatures and increased flooding, both of which provide better breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
"Another thing is the increased mobility of the population," Ngan said, "with a further factor being that Cambodia is a developing country and dengue fever is very closely related to development. With construction sites you get [stagnant water]."
