uring my visit to Cambodia last year, I examined the state of malaria control in the country and provided recommendations for how to sustain the country’s success against the disease. This kind of strategic analysis is not new for me. I spent 15 years leading USAID’s malaria programs, culminating in designing and soliciting support for the U.S. government’s largest malaria program – the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), which launched in 2005.
My recommendations largely focused on integrating future malaria surveillance into a broader program focusing on the major causes of fever-inducing, or febrile, illnesses in Cambodia. We presented these recommendations to the Cambodia National Malaria Control Program (CNM), as well as USAID and PMI, and have been endorsed by the CNM to create a concept paper for field validation. URC will lead the effort under the Cambodia Malaria Elimination Project 2 (CMEP2), which URC implements.
My observations and experiences with malaria in Cambodia from 2005 through my most recent trip in 2023 are remarkable.
When I visited Cambodia in 2005 while leading USAID’s malaria programs, I saw hospitals and clinics overflowing with malaria patients during the disease’s high season. Malaria was a major problem, especially in western Cambodia. That year, 102,628 people tested positive for malaria and 382 died from the disease, according to the CNM.
Last year during a trip to Cambodia while representing URC, I noticed how few malaria patients there were. The country experienced 4,053 cases and zero deaths in 2023. There have been no malaria deaths in Cambodia since 2018.