8/02/2010
(Xinhua)
PHNOM PENH -- The Ministry of Health has launched a nationwide sanitation and hygiene awareness campaign following a series of deaths across the country caused by diarrhea, local media reported on Monday.
Ly Sovann, deputy director of the ministry's Communicable Diseases Control Department, said that as part of the campaign, which began on Saturday, officials had been stationed on the ground in every province to treat cases of diarrhea.
He said that diarrhea is of particular concern during the dry season because people are driven to drink unsanitary water.
"We are concerned about diarrhea this month, and for this campaign we have scattered expert officers to all 24 provinces in Cambodia," he was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.
A 11-year-old boy in Ratanakkiri province died after a bout of diarrhea last Thursday, and another person died of diarrhea the following day, said Pon Pun, the chief of Lonk Khon commune in Borkeo district, where the deaths occurred.
A series of reports of diarrhea and suspected cholera cases have recently sprung up in Prey Veng, Takeo and Kandal provinces, the newspaper reported.
Ly Sovann said authorities were also concerned about a potential cholera outbreak, but he said he could not confirm whether any cases had been detected, and he also could not provide specific information on the number of diarrhea cases reported nationwide.
The World Health Organization country representative Pieter Van Maaren said he also did not have data on the total number of diarrhea cases, but he said that outbreaks during the dry season were common.
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