Lessons Learned from Cambodia Useful for Region
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Schoolgirl’s Malaria Knowledge Helps Family Avoid Getting Sick live in non-malaria infested areas. But for 14-year-old Seub Saren Like Seub Saren, other fifth graders who has attended a school in Siem- in Pailin can also easily score a good of drug-resistant malaria on the Thai-Cambodian border reap Province’s Srey Snom District, mark for the lesson about malaria. she finds this knowledge about malar- ia particularly interesting and useful for Nuon Phon, a Grade 5 teacher her family when they moved to Pailin, at Pailin’s Phoum Thmei Primary where malaria posed a serious health School, says his students are enthu- Quarterly Newsletter of the Strategy for the Containment of Artemisinin-Tolerant Malaria Parasites in South-East Asia Project threat to migrant workers like her family. siastic to learn about malaria, “be- January-March 2011 cause Pailin is a malaria infested Seub Saren who educates her family in Pailin about malaria. Pix by WHO/Sonny Krishnan “After she returned from school, area, so they are very interested.” she told the family how to protect our- Lessons Learned from Cambodia Useful for Region Malaria is spread by female ‘nail’ selves from malaria,” says her father, Unlike many other lessons about “mosquitoes during nighttime.” Science that is complicated and dif- here are lessons to be learned Se Seub, who is now living and working by other countries in the in Pailin with his wife and four children. ficult to learn, Nuon Phon says T “To avoid getting malaria, people teaching malaria as a subject in Pai- Greater Mekong Sub-region as they should protect themselves from being lin is very practical and relevant. push for containment and eventual bitten by female ‘nail’ mosquitoes by Seub says he was sick with ma- elimination of artemisinin-resistant laria when he came to work in Pailin sleeping in a mosquito net.” “People malaria. three years ago and that he had to “I asked them where they lived; they who have malaria must take proper me- said they lived in the mountainous are- go back to Siem Reap for treatment. dicines as prescribed by a physician.” as,” says Phon as he explains the meth- This was the message put for- odology he uses to teach his students. However, he says he has never This is Lesson 11 at Grade 5 in Cam- ward by the Secretary of State been sick with the disease during bodia which young Cambodian stude- “Then, I asked ‘Have you had for the Ministry of Health, His Ex- the last few years after learning to nts are taught at school as part of the malaria before?’ They said ‘Yes,” he cellency Chou Yin Sim, when he protect himself and his family as his curriculum for their “Applied Science” continues. “’So, do you want to have opened the third Cambodian Task daughter taught them. study. malaria?’ they said ‘No.’” Force meeting on December 3, Seub Saren says she knows very 2010 at the Phnom Penh Hotel. However, like other lessons about “What should you do?” he asks well about malaria from the lessons such diseases as typhoid and den- and he would prod the students with she has learned at school, which “The National Task Force of gue fevers, malaria is not an inter- more follow-up questions. was why she could educate her Cambodia provides national su- esting lesson for many students who family how to prevent the disease. Moeun Chhean Nariddh pervision to the Containment Cambodia Task Force Meeting in progress. Pix by WHO ....from page 1 Project funded by the Bill & Melin- and legal ac- Malaria Containment Project Manager. artemisin-resistant malaria. Zone 2 da Gates Foundation,” he told the Forces in both Cambodia and tion,” he said. is a buffer zone to make sure the meeting attended by WHO, the Thailand overseeing the project. Stressed Dr. Habib: “If this resist- disease does not spread beyond National Malaria Control Centre ance to artesunate spreads from “In Cambodia, the focal area. For Zone 3, we have (CNM), and their working partners. The international level oversight this area to other regions or other a ban on mon- now good news that Global Fund is through a panel of international countries, it constitutes not only a otherapies to- Round 9 activities are geared to- “Elimination of resistant malaria malaria experts in the International regional but a global public health gether with the wards control in those areas includ- parasites will remain out of reach Task Force. So far the Internation- issue. Therefore it’s an issue that Public-Private ing the whole of unless we pay adequate attention al Task Mix initiative Cambodia.” to the delivery of health services, Force has In order to reduce selection pressure, it is imperative to use artemisinin-derived have achieved including good surveillance of re- held two drugs with other partner drugs in the treatment of falciparum malaria. almost zero mote areas and migrant popula- meet- prevalence tions. This cannot be done with- ings – the first in Phnom of artemisinin goes beyond just Pailin or Western In order to reduce selection out the strengthening of health Penh in 2009 and the other in monothera- Cambodia or Zone One or Zone Two pressure, it is imperative to use ar- systems,” stressed H.E. Yin Sim. Hanoi in February 2010. – it goes regionally and globally.” temisinin-derived drugs with other pies as well populations at risk of malaria, es- as a significant reduction in partner drugs in the treatment of H.E. Yin Sim pointed out the “The ultimate goal of the project is pecially those who stay overnight fake and substandard drugs on Dr. Habib explained to the Task falciparum malaria.“In Zone 1 it is strategies that have been effec- to contain the artemisinin-resist- dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine in the forest,” he told the meeting. the market,” said H.E. Yin Sim. Force Meeting the zoning of the tive in the Containment Project. ant malaria by removing selection (DHA-P); in Zone 2 it is artesuna- Another important strategy was the “I do hope this positive exam- Containment Project. “Zone 1 in- te plus mefloquine (A and M) and ban on monotherapies that H.E. Yin ple and the lessons learned can pressure and reducing and ulti- volves not just Western Cambodia “The strategies that have been atovaquone – proguanil in Thai- Sim said had proven to be effective be replicated in other countries mately eliminating falciparum ma- but also some areas in Thailand as found to be effective in the Contain- land,” Dr. Habib pointed out. in addressing the spread of multi- in the region,” he emphasized. laria through a series of strategies,” well. And that’s where we have our ment Project have been the provi- drug resistant falciparum malaria. The US$22.5-million Containment said Dr. Najibullah Habib, WHO’s elimination strategy – to eliminate sion of free diagnosis and treatment Project funded by the Bill & Melinda by village malaria workers and the “The Ministry of Health is com- Gates Foundation involves both promotion of the use of LLINs (long- mitted to eliminating monothera- Cambodia and Thailand. There CONTAINMENT is published by WHO Cambodia’s Malaria Containment Project. For enquiries please lasting insecticide treated nets) by pies and perpetrators will be sub- are respective National Task contact Dr. Najibullah Habib, Malaria Containment Project Manager, World Health Organization jected to administrative measures Cambodia, 177-179 St. Pasteur (51), PO Box 1217, Phnom Penh OR e-mail: [email protected] continued on page 8 Law Enforcers to Get Tough on Counterfeit Medicines Reaching Out To Migrant Workers At The Thai Border said. longgong, rambutan, durian, mang- “The economic police officers osteen, among others. are to supplement the work of other institutions.” But fruit-picking is rated by Pong Nam Ron District authorities as a He said that the combat against “high risk” occupation. counterfeit and substandard drugs would be even more effective if The high-risk rating, explained the village leaders could also be Saowanit Vijaykadga, head of the trained to identify and distinguish bureau's Malaria Cluster, referred between good drugs from bad ones. to those fruit-pickers who “stayed overnight inside orchards and did The Phnom Penh Poice Vice- not take precautions, such as protect Commissioner said the workshop themselves with long-lasting insec- had provided the participants with ticide-treated nets and repellents.” substantial knowledge and skills Dr. Doung Socheat, Director of CNM, addressing the workshop. Pix by WHO/Sonny Krishnan Workers from Cambodia making their way to Thailand at the border crossing in Sampov Loun. so that they could do their work more Pix by WHO/Sonny Krishnan While the Bill & Melinda Gates ambodian malaria experts try of Health to encourage local au- efficiently. and senior police officers have ong Nam Ron District, Chantaburi Foundation-funded containment C thorities to provide more support to project is now able to diagnose and agreed that better cooperation and PProvince -- “Mom” lives in this A family who had lived in the concerted efforts are needed to the crackdown on counterfeit and “Even myself, I have learned a lot treat falciparum malaria cases ef- camp with other people who come camp for about a year enjoyed the effectively combat malaria as well substandard drugs in Cambodia, from the workshop,” said General and go between Thailand and their fectively with quality drugs, other as curb the sale and smuggling of particularly in the rural areas. Ben, adding: “I think they will be homes in Cambodia whenever luxury of a wooden floor and used measures like the targeted distribu- counterfeit and substandard drugs able to pass on their knowledge [to there is work.