Ministry confirms cases of cholera

A doctor holds up a petri dish containing a confirmed cholera specimen at Kantha Bopha Children’s Hospital last week. The Health Ministry said Friday that 128 Cambodians had contracted cholera. (Photo by: Rick Valenzuela)

Monday, 15 February 2010
By Brooke Lewis and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

THE Ministry of Health has reported that more than 100 Cambodians have tested positive for cholera since November, reversing its initial refusal to confirm the presence of the disease and simultaneously defending its handling of the outbreak.

Speaking at a joint press conference held with the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday, Minister of Health Mam Bunheng said there had been 128 confirmed cholera cases and one death. About 65 percent of the cases involved children under the age of 15, and the single recorded fatality was an 82-year-old man from Takeo province who died after contracting cholera in January, he said.

Dr Nima Asgari, a public health official at the WHO, on Sunday noted that the nation has only four hospitals, all in Phnom Penh, with the correct laboratory facilities required to test for cholera, adding that it would be “almost impossible to estimate the actual number of cases of cholera” nationwide.

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