Malaria deaths and infections in Cambodia rose sharply in 2009

via CAAI News Media

Posted : Mon, 22 Feb 2010 G

By : dpa

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's leading health official for malaria said Monday the disease killed one-third more people last year than in 2008. Dr Duong Socheat, who heads the national malaria centre, said 279 people died from the mosquito-transmitted disease last year in Cambodia, up from 209.

He said the number infected by the parasite was up 38 per cent from 58,000 to around 80,000.

The figures mark a reversal in the country's trend of declining infections and deaths from malaria since 2000, and increase the risk it will miss its 2015 target for reducing malaria fatalities under its UN Millennium Development Goal (MDG).

Duong Socheat blamed the rise in part on the early arrival of rains, as well as increased population movement into high-risk forested areas. He said delays in getting infected people to health centres also played a role.

"Another reason was the late distribution of mosquito nets," he said. "They arrived very late in May after the rains had already started."

He said colleagues in Thailand had reported a similar rise in malaria cases.

Cambodia's MDG target for malaria fatalities is 0.1 per cent by 2015, meaning that no more than one person in every 1,000 infected with the parasite would die. The roadmap target for 2010 is 0.2 per cent.

But the new figures show last year's fatality rate was 0.35 per cent.

Duong Socheat said he hoped the MDG target for malaria would be met, adding that to do so would require more funding and health products.

"We are trying our best to meet this MDG goal, but as you know the economic crisis has caused problems for the region so this has contributed to this problem as well," he said.

"But if we can secure the funds and we have good [coordination] from central areas to the peripheral areas, then I think we can meet it," Duong Socheat said.

The rise in infections and deaths follows reports last year that health workers had found tolerance in western Cambodia to the key artemisinin drugs treatment.

That discovery worried experts since artemisinin remains the main combination therapy to combat malaria, and a resistant strain could have significant public health consequences.

However, Duong Socheat said last year's higher death toll was not due to artemisinin resistance. He said artemisinin resistance means the body takes longer to rid itself of the malaria parasite, but does not of itself contribute to a higher death rate.