Health in Cambodia
[4] In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 89.7% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.
In 1970, a coup d’état, supported by the United States, brought down the Cambodian government of King Norodom Sihanouk, and the Khmer Republic, an unstable military republican regime, was installed.
As the civil war progressed, the regime was eventually overthrown by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 and in the aftermath, an internal genocide began, further destroying the economy and the capital city, massacred intellectuals, and crumbled the country apart, resulting in the deaths of around 1.7 million people (21% of the population) in total.
Cambodia is officially no longer a country of military conflict, as it has experienced a period of relative political stability in response to the 1998 election.
During the newfound political stability, the country has experienced significant and consistent economic growth, but from a very deprived foundation.
As of 2012, Cambodia has reached GDP per capita of US$944, right on the verge of achieving the threshold for lower middle-income country status of US$1035.
[5] Inequality in health care persists between people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, most prominently contrasted between the rural and urban population.
There are many social stratifications, such as wealth, education level, and living location, that influence inequality among access to health care services.
[8] Mortality data suggests emerging burdens specifically from injuries (traffic accidents), high blood pressure, heart disease, and liver cancer.
[14] Plasmodium falciparum resistance to artemisinin drugs was first confirmed in western Cambodia; treatment failures to artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) have been reported from multiple sites on the Thailand-Cambodia border.
[14] The following surveillance activities were intensified in the 18 districts: following up on cases, investigating focal areas, and conducting response interventions.
[14] The National Malaria Program aimed to develop evidence-based approaches that could be scaled up to these 18 operational districts targeting elimination.
[15] Since the beginning of passive surveillance in 1980, the case fatality rate has decreased from 15% to 0.3% from 1980 to 2010 [16] HIV emerged as a major infection affecting the lives of approximately 2.4% of the population in 1998.
Significantly, a low prevalence rate in the general population masks far higher prevalence rates in certain sub-populations, such as injecting drug users, people in prostitution, men who have sex with men, karaoke hostesses and beer girls, and mobile and migrant populations.
According to the health data from MOH, being male and being a motorcycle rider contributed most significantly to the burden, accounting for 80% and 67% of all mortalities due to injuries in 2010, respectively.
[21] Prematurity, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, diarrhea, and injuries remain the top 5 killers of children under 5 years of age in Cambodia.
[22] Notably, the rate of diarrheal disease and measles decreased significantly in response to high vaccination coverage campaign set forth by the Ministry of Health.
Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation facilities are major risk factors of infectious disease, especially diarrhea.
[25] Ratanakiri residents' poor health can be attributed to a variety of factors, including poverty, physical remoteness, language and cultural barriers that prevent Khmer Loeu from obtaining medical care, poor infrastructure and access to water, lack of accountability in the medical community, and exacerbating environmental factors such as natural resource degradation, decreasing food production, and internal migration.
[27] Medical equipment and supplies are minimal, and most health facilities are staffed by nurses or midwives, who are often poorly trained and irregularly paid.
