Malaria causes nearly 300 deaths in Cambodia in 2009

Cambodian government said Monday that malaria, one of the country's deadly diseases has caused nearly 300 deaths in Cambodia in 2009.

Duong Socheat, director of National Malaria Center said some 280 Cambodians died from malaria last year, a sharp increase from a year earlier that recorded only about 200.

He said the number of infection by the disease was also a big jump from more than 50,000 in 2008 to about 80,000 in 2009.

He blamed the sharp increase of the infections and the deaths by the mosquito-transmitted disease to the early rainfalls and the migration of people to the disease infected areas.

Six of the country's 24 provinces are considered as the areas severely affected by the disease. Those provinces are identified as Kompong Cham, Koh Kong, Stung Treng, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, and Kratie.

Duong Socheat, meanwhile, blamed the late arrivals of mosquito distributions to the areas.

Cambodia's Millennium Development Goal target for malaria fatalities is 0.1 per cent by 2015.

Source: Xinhua