Vietnam Medical Confab Puts Focus on Diarrheal Disease

Government officials met with their regional counterparts in Hanoi this week to discuss a vaccine that pre­vents the leading cause of sev­ere diarrheal disease. Research has shown it could prevent half of cases of the virus in poorer parts of Asia.

In August, British medical journal the Lancet published data from trials of the rotavirus vaccine in Viet­nam and Bangladesh, considered to be representative of poorer parts of the region, that showed it was effective in almost half of rotavirus cas­es. In Vietnam, vaccines re­duced severe rotavirus diarrhea by 72.3 percent during the first year of life, when children are at greatest risk.

Nima Asgari, public health specialist at the World Health Organi­zation in Cambodia, said diarrhea was still a big problem in Cambodia. “It’s the same in most developing countries,” he said.

Mr Asgari said considerable res­earch would have to be done before the rotavirus vaccine could be used in Cambodia.

“We need to find out the actual burden of rotavirus, identify funding for buying the vaccine, and come up with a plan of how to integrate the vaccine into the childhood immunization program,” he said.

This year saw a rash of acute wat­ery diarrhea cases nationwide, but Ratanakkiri pro­vince was hit particularly hard, with 32 deaths recorded between April and July.

Andrew Martin, country manager for Health Unlimited, said his org­anization was awarded funding from the European Commission for Hu­m­anitarian Aid and Civil Protection last week to support it in combating AWD in Ratanakkiri.

“We’ll be working on everything connected with causes and treatment,” he said.

Diarrheal disease kills more than 1.3 million children worldwide each year, according to PATH, an international non-profit health organization that hosted the Mekong Reg­ional Workshop on Diarrheal Dis­ease Control in partnership with the Vietnamese Ministry of Health.

Bota Chengli, a representative for PATH, wrote in an e-mail that Chhorn Veasna, Manager of Na­tion­al Cholera and Diarrheal Dis­eases at the Ministry of Health attended the workshop. Health officials could not be immediately reached.