Monday, 12 July 2010

Health officials comb afflicted Svay Rieng


via Khmer NZ

Monday, 12 July 2010 15:02 Tep Nimol

BETWEEN 30 and 40 new cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been reported in Svay Rieng province, prompting health officials to go door-to-door administering treatment, the head of the provincial Health Department said yesterday.

Seven of the newly sick have been hospitalised, Pen Sina said.

The outbreak began just two days after a 9-year-old girl died of the disease.

Pen Sina said there had been “hundreds” of cases reported since late June.

He also said the department had received cholera test results from the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh, and that two of four samples from the end of June had come back positive, as had three of four samples from early July.

He added that this information would not likely be shared with villagers in Svay Rieng so as to avoid sowing panic.

“They tell the patients that it is just a simple disease,” he said of the health officials.

As of July 6, the Health Ministry had recorded 465 cases of cholera dating back to November 2009.

The cases have been spread across 18 provinces, according to a report available on the ministry’s website.

Pursat has also experienced a recent outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea, officials there said.

Sao Daroeung, the governor of Bakan district, said 47 people had been stricken with the disease on Friday. He said the cases had likely been caused by dirty water.

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