We’re So Close to Getting Rid of Malaria Here!

Malaria numbers are dropping annually in Cambodia, putting the country on track to eradicate the disease by 2025.

“We see that with the attention of the Ministry of Health and the provincial governor’s master plan to eradicate malaria in 2025, we will be able to eradicate it successfully with the participation of partner organisations. We will also obtain some new technical equipment and antimalarial medicine to treat people recovering from malaria,” says director of the Mondulkiri Provincial Health Department, Bun Sour.

Between 2023 and 2023 alone, there was a 66 percent decrease in the number of Malaria cases in Cambodia, standing at only 1,384 individuals in 2023. Thanks to better treatment facilities, action plans, and volunteer doctors localized in smaller villages, there has not been a single death from the disease within the country since 2018. Communities themselves are also taking the disease more seriously, protecting themselves with mosquito nets and sprays when entering at-risk areas as well as taking antimalarial medicines if needed. Should the work from both the local and governmental levels continue, Cambodia is on track to meet its goal as outlined in the National Malaria Eradication Plan by 2025.