Disease

Malaria treatment fails in Cambodia

Malaria-carrying parasites in parts of Cambodia have developed resistance to a major drug used to treat the disease in Southeast Asia, according to research published on Thursday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

The drug piperaquine, used in combination with the drug artemisinin, has been the main form of malaria treatment in Cambodia since 2008.

The combination is also one of the few treatments still effective against multi drug-resistant malaria which has emerged in Southeast Asia in recent years, and which experts fear may spread to other parts of the world.

Resistance to both artemisinin and drugs used in combination with it has developed in parts of Cambodia and Thailand.

Experts are particularly concerned that artemisinin resistance will spread to sub-Saharan Africa where about 90 percent of malaria cases and deaths occur.

Disease

Bird Flu

China - Five more H7N9 influenza infections have been confirmed in eastern China, all in older adults, while suspicions grow that wild birds may be the source and that the disease might be spreading to people through poultry environments.

China found new cases of bird flu in five live bird markets in the eastern past of the country. Chinese officials said the H7N9 avian influenza virus was found in three live bird markets in the province of Jiangsu, one in the province of Anhui and one in the province of Zhejiang, the report said.

Nine people have died out of 33 confirmed cases of the virus, all in eastern China,

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) activated its Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta Monday to support the response to the H7N9 influenza outbreak in China.

Cambodia - Cambodia is battling a new outbreak of bird flu which has killed eight people.

Anthrax - Ghana

Outbreak of Anthrax hits Bawku in northern Ghana.

Disease

Bird Flu - Cambodia

The Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Cambodia reported five new human cases of avian influenza that were confirmed positive for the H5N1 virus in January 2013.

Disease

7 000 primary schools and 2 700 kindergartens have been closed in Cambodia due to hand, foot and mouth disease outbreak.

 

Disease

The mystery disease that has claimed the lives of more than 50 children in Cambodia has been linked to the virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease.

 

Disease

Death rate soars in refugee camps in southern Sudan. The camps have become a swamp after recent heavy rains, but there is little or no available fresh water. Diarrhea and other preventable diseases are claiming 9 children every day.

International health officials are investigating an outbreak of an unidentified disease in Cambodia.