PHNOM PENH, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia reported 1,384 malaria cases in 2023, down about 66 percent from a year earlier, marking significant progress in the fight against the disease, a health official said on Friday.
"There were no fatalities reported among the cases," Huy Rekol, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, told Xinhua.
He said the Southeast Asian country has achieved a major milestone in eliminating malaria deaths since 2018, a target it aimed to achieve three years later.
According to Rekol, malaria diagnostic tests and treatments have been highly effective in Cambodia, with Artesunate-Mefloquine, or ASMQ, being 100 percent safe and efficacious against malaria.
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease typically found in forest and mountainous provinces, especially during rainy seasons.
To avoid being bitten by malaria-carrying mosquitoes, Rekol advises people living in malaria-risk areas to always sleep under insecticide-treated mosquito nets. ■
