CDC in Cambodia
A triage system was set up at Siem Reap Provincial Hospital in March 2020 after identifying a case-contact who tested positive for COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established an office in the Kingdom of Cambodia in 2002. CDC works with the country’s Ministry of Health (MOH) and local and international partners to address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, influenza, and COVID-19. CDC’s partnership with the MOH strengthens Cambodia’s laboratory, surveillance, and workforce capacities to respond to disease outbreaks.
Global Health Security
Resilient public health systems can rapidly prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats before they become epidemics. CDC’s team in Cambodia works to enhance the country’s ability to respond to public health emergencies and strengthen workforce capacity. CDC also played a key role in the MOH’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
CDC Cambodia provided guidance and training to public health responders working on the COVID-19 response
CDC Cambodia supported the MOH’s Emergency Operations Center
CDC served as a leading partner in Cambodia’s COVID-19 Surveillance Technical Working Group
Cambodia was the largest country in the world without a single COVID-19 death in 2020
As of December 2022, 215 graduates completed the Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). These epidemiologists detect, prevent, and control diseases before they become epidemics
CDC Cambodia supports the Cambodian Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (CAVET) program. CAVET’s 75 graduates respond to zoonotic disease outbreaks
HIV/AIDS and TB
CDC works with the MOH to build a sustainable HIV response program. Cambodia strives to sustain epidemic control and eliminate HIV. CDC focuses on:
- Finding people with undiagnosed HIV and placing them on treatment
- Ensuring treatment continuity and client-centered services for all, including children and adolescents
- Developing an HIV case-based surveillance system that uses real-time data from HIV recency testing to find and respond to outbreaks
- Improving laboratory systems to detect and monitor HIV
- Adopting and ensuring nationwide implementation of international HIV policies
- Supporting the national HIV and TB control programs to ensure that people living with HIV are screened for TB and receive TB preventive treatment
Through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC is working with Cambodia to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2025
CDC works with Cambodia’s national HIV and TB control programs to screen for TB among people living with HIV and provide TB preventive treatment
Laboratory Capacity Strengthening
CDC helps strengthen the quality of laboratory systems in Cambodia to accurately diagnose, monitor, and treat infections, including HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, TB, and influenza viruses. CDC also helped implement a laboratory quality management system and supports HIV hub laboratories to achieve international accreditation.
Staff from the Battambang Hospital referral laboratory collect COVID-19 samples in Battambang, Cambodia. Photo by Chiek Sivhdur/Battambang Referral Hospital
CDC Cambodia helped implement a laboratory quality management system (LQMS) and obtain accreditation for HIV hub laboratories
With technical support from CDC, the Cambodian National Institute of Public Health Reference Laboratory received International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15189 Plus™ accreditation in February 2019 and was re-certified in April 2023
Malaria
Through the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), CDC works with Cambodia’s National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria to pilot and expand malaria elimination activities in Western Cambodia. PMI supports the National Malaria Elimination Action Framework to scale up control and elimination activities for a malaria-free Cambodia by 2025. CDC and partners provide:
- Technical support for surveillance (antimalarial drug resistance and insecticide resistance)
- Case management
- Supply chain management
- Vector monitoring
- Social and behavior change communication
CDC’s malaria work in Cambodia as part of PMI, includes surveillance, vector monitoring, case management, and social and behavior change communication
Influenza
CDC works with the Cambodian government and other partners to help build influenza surveillance and laboratory capacity. Cambodia contributes to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Influenza Network.
CDC supports identification and characterization of circulating novel influenza viruses in Cambodia
Recent Graduates of Cambodia’s FETP Use Their Frontline Training to Respond to COVID-19
CDC in Cambodia – Strengthening laboratory biosafety and biosecurity through legislation
Management Matters: The Link Between Management Capacity Building and Greater Global Health Security
Preventing Cervical Cancer in Cambodia: Evaluating the HPV Vaccination Demonstration Project
- 3 U.S. Assignees
- 23 Locally Employed
- Population: >16.8 million
- Per capita income: $4,430
- Life expectancy: F 73 / M 67 years
- Infant mortality rate: 12/1,000 live births
Sources: Sources: Population Reference Bureau 2022, Cambodia
- Stroke
- Lower respiratory infections
- Ischemic heart disease
- Cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases
- Tuberculosis
- Neonatal disorders
- Diabetes
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer
- Road injuries
Source: GBD Compare 2019, Cambodia
