Cambodia

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), from 2020 to 2021, Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic saw a 65 percent and 14 percent decrease in P. falciparum cases, respectively. This improvement is remarkable, but ensuring that communities in hard-to-reach areas receive treatment is essential to ensuring these efforts are sustained. High internal mobility and cross-border migration contribute to sustained malaria transmission within the country, as forest goers and mobile and migrant populations have limited access to community or facility-based healthcare services. Forest goers are at the greatest risk of contracting malaria, given high exposure to mosquitoes while cutting timber, hunting, preparing farmland, foraging and finding resin.  We work closely with the Cambodian government to reduce the malaria burden, promoting dissemination of knowledge to health workers and communities.  

Regional Artemisinin Initiative 3 Elimination (RAI3E)

RAI3E aims to contribute towards Cambodia’s goal of eliminating P. falciparum by 2023 and P. vivax by 2025. It is the third project under the RAI Fund, which strives to accelerate coordinated efforts to eliminate malaria in the GMS. 

Find out more 

SESR-based strategies on dengue vector control

In this project, Malaria Consortium and partners helped to implement a cross-sectoral dengue prevention project. This approach aimed to reduce mosquito breeding sites and limit the spread of dengue by trialling a socio-ecological vector control strategy that combines evidence-based biophysical with social interventions.  

Find out more  

Regional Artemisinin Initiative 2 Elimination (RAI2E)

The Regional Artemisinin Initiative 2 Elimination (RAI2E) project took place in 2018-2020, to improve existing malaria prevention and control services and build the technical and programme management skills of provincial health department, operational district and health centre staff in the Kampot, Kep and Takeo provinces in southern Cambodia. 

Find out more 

Malaria Consortium in Cambodia 

We contribute towards the Cambodian government’s efforts towards eliminating malaria by 2025. Working closely with the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control and the Ministry of Health (MoH), we promote the sharing of learning and knowledge among national and provincial health staff, enhance surveillance and design social and behaviour change (SBC) interventions. Malaria Consortium’s expert support in Cambodia was recognised in 2015 when the MoH awarded us with a certificate of merit for high performance on malaria elimination-focused implementation.  

Another core focus of our work in Cambodia was dengue, the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease, which is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes. In collaboration with the MoH and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, we have contributed to the development of knowledge and effective strategies among health workers and communities to combat the spread of dengue through locally adapted vector control strategies combined with social interventions. 

Areas of focus 

Health system strengthening Tailored community interventionEngaging communities Building evidence

Sustainability is key to our programmes, which seek to integrate activities into existing structures to strengthen health systems. In Cambodia, we supported the capacity development of provincial, district and health facility staff in technical and programme management.  

 

Partnering with Population Services International (PSI), Malaria Consortium supported the provinces of Kampot, Kep and Takeo in implementing the National Malaria Control Programme under the Regional Artemisinin Initiative 2 Elimination (RAI2E) grant from 2018-2020. This helped improve malaria prevention and control services for at-risk individuals at health centres, as well as at the community level via support to village malaria workers.

We are committed to working with community members to improve healthcare access for the most excluded groups. A flexible and culturally tailored approach to delivering early malaria detection and treatment interventions allows Malaria Consortium to reach forest goers as well as mobile and migrant populations in the most remote areas of northern Cambodia. 

Many of our malaria and dengue programmes combine SBC technical expertise with community engagement. Through targeted awareness raising, we promote the sharing of knowledge and learning to support community-led activities and solutions 

 

To reduce the spread of dengue, we implemented a socio-ecological vector control strategy in the rural Prey Chhor district in Kampong Cham province from 2018-2020. We supported communities in producing affordable mosquito traps using recycled plastic water bottles and setting up community-managed guppy fish nurseries to target mosquito larvae breeding in water containers near schools and homes. Through health education, we raised awareness of the importance of removing or covering potential breeding sites, such as empty tins and bottles. 

Since 2013, we have been building the evidence base that underpins our strategic approach to reaching the most at-risk populations with early malaria diagnosis and treatment services. Through extensive research, we demonstrated that working in forests and at family plantations in forested areas is associated with a significantly higher risk of malaria infection.  

 

Between 2019-2020, we contributed to a study led by the Institute Pasteur du Cambodge that assesses the effectiveness of forest-based malaria control interventions in Cambodia. The study seeks to determine which interventions are acceptable to forest-goers and how existing strategies to detect and treat malaria can be optimised.