Battle to control malaria in Cambodia 'not over'

Jun 8 2012

"Two years after some $22 million in donor funds were pumped into malaria control along the Cambodia-Thailand border to fight off suspected resistance to treatment, health workers say the battle is not over," IRIN reports, adding, "The government reported 103,000 malaria infections and 151 deaths nationwide in 2010. A year later, 85,000 reported infections led to 93 deaths -- a 38-percent decline in mortality." "'If you take your foot off the … [accelerator] we can lose everything we have done in the past two to three years,' Steven Bjorge, anti-malaria team leader in Cambodia for the [WHO], told IRIN in February 2012," the news service writes.

"The government has announced a goal of zero malaria cases by 2025, but is struggling to hang on to donor funds," according to IRIN. "The Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria pledged almost $80 million in two current grants to fight malaria in Cambodia, but government agencies were unable to collect some $20 million -- 35 percent of one grant -- due to 'performance below the expectations,' said Andrew Hurst, a Global Fund spokesman," the news service notes (6/7).