Published: 10 June 2002
The lives of hundreds of children will be saved by a campaign to treat the water supply of 3.6 million Cambodians living in high-risk areas for dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) as the peak of the epidemic at the end of July draws close.
"Almost five hundred children died in the last major epidemic in 1998 and this year we are launching the largest-ever Cambodian Red Cross public health initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation to ensure that deaths are kept to a minimum," said Seija Tyrninoksa, Head of Delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
An International Federation relief flight carrying 40 tonnes of the Abate larvicide arrived in Phnom Penh at the weekend. The Cambodian Red Cross is working with the Ministry of Health to re-package the Abate for distribution to 670,000 households which will use small packages of this larvicide to prevent mosquitos from infecting traditional water jars. Another 40 tonnes will arrive by ship later this month.
"This is really a race against time but we are confident that with the network of Cambodian Red Cross volunteers and Ministry of Health distributors both health education campaigns and Abate distributions will be completed in the 21 provinces and 45 districts that we are targeting. Dengue is a very serious problem in the country and our experience in past campaigns tells us that many lives can be saved by timely preventative measures," said Tyrninoksa.
An estimated 10,000 Red Cross volunteers will help with the campaign and raise awareness of the deadly disease. "Our strength is the trained grassroots level Red Cross volunteer and youth networks which can be easily mobilised nation-wide for these types of campaigns," said Professor My Samedy, Secretary General of the Cambodian Red Cross.
Dengue fever and its deadly variant dengue haemorrhagic fever are caused by a day-biting mosquito. The campaign is being supported by ECHO, the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office and carried out in partnership with the Cambodian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation. For further information, or to set up interviews, please contact:
Denis McClean, Head, Media Service - Tel.: +41 (0)22 730 44 28 / Mobile: +41 (0)79 217 33 57