Cambodia nears Khmer Rouge survivor’s dream of eradicating malaria

Cambodian scientist Yeang Chheang has spent six a long time combating malaria—even within the Khmer Rouge labor camp the place his spouse and child died—and stands tantalizingly near fulfilling his life’s work.

The dominion is stepping up a “final mile” push to wipe out the mosquito-borne illness, specializing in hard-to-reach communities in distant, forested or mountainous areas.

From 170,000 circumstances and 865 deaths from malaria in 1997, solely 355 circumstances had been recorded final yr—and never a single fatality has been reported since 2018.

The hope is for zero circumstances this yr—a exceptional turnaround for a rustic that was previously an epicenter of multi-drug resistant strains. And the landmark can be unthinkable with out the work of Yeang Chheang, who rebuilt the malaria management program after the autumn of the Khmer Rouge.

The communist regime murdered, starved or labored to loss of life round two million folks throughout its 1975-79 rule—together with Yeang Chheang’s three brothers, sister, mom, spouse and son.

Aged 17, he started coaching as Cambodia’s first medical entomologist with a French professional in 1954.

He helped with the primary malaria elimination pilot venture, organising a lab beneath a leaf-roofed workplace, catching mosquitoes and larvae for experiments when he was deployed to a malaria hotspot within the northeast within the Nineteen Sixties.

“After we began the work, it was so tough as a result of we lacked folks with good information,” the 87-year-old informed AFP from his dwelling in Phnom Penh.

Starved to loss of life

When the Khmer Rouge took energy, Yeang Chheang and his household had been despatched from Phnom Penh to a labor camp the place his spouse and child son starved to loss of life.

Regardless of fearing for his life, he continued treating malaria sufferers, secretly handing out capsules he had picked up from piles of drugs dumped within the streets when he left Phnom Penh.

That might have seen him killed for violating Khmer Rouge guidelines.

However the cadres spared him after a high commander fell sick with malaria.

“Due to my medicines, I may survive and didn’t need to work exhausting carrying soil or digging canals,” Yeang Chheang stated.

“The tablets saved our lives,” he added, referring to himself and his three different sons.

After the Khmer Rouge was ousted in 1979, he joined with a handful of others to revive the nationwide malaria management program.

There have been a number of outbreaks in subsequent years, and he led his crew on foot via villages riddled with landmines within the former Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, a hotpsot for drug-resistant malaria.

‘Final inch’

Malaria, brought on by parasites transmitted by way of mosquitoes, was for many years a serious explanation for sickness and loss of life in Cambodia.

The federal government launched a nationwide motion plan in 2011, aiming to remove all circumstances within the nation by 2025.

Inside three years the dominion stopped drug-resistant malaria, and in 2020 launched the so-called “final mile” efforts.

Almost two-thirds of final yr’s reported circumstances had been within the distant northeast, the place native volunteers have signed as much as assist.

Nhoun Niyok, 37, joined the marketing campaign a decade in the past in Pu Kesh village in Mondulkiri province.

He carries out speedy checks, administers medicines and advises folks on utilizing insecticide-treated mosquito nets to guard themselves.

“I’m so comfortable I may assist my neighborhood and I feel villagers will not be sick with malaria once more,” he stated.

He final recorded a malaria case in his village in September.

“Maybe, the dream will come true,” he stated. “It appears to be like like malaria can be gone quickly.”

If there aren’t any malaria circumstances this yr, Cambodia would want to maintain zero indigenous infections for one more three consecutive years from 2026 to be licensed as malaria-free by the World Well being Group (WHO).

Success would make it solely the second nation in continental Asia to realize the feat, after China.

“This yr, we’re getting into the final inch, not final mile anymore,” Huy Rekol, director of the Nationwide Middle for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Management, informed AFP.

Marianna Trias, the WHO consultant to Cambodia, added that certification would set “a strong instance for different international locations, inspiring them to pursue the identical purpose”.

Consultants warn local weather change and cross-border transmission involving migrants and cellular populations may but derail Cambodia’s efforts.

And a few of its initiatives had been funded by the US Company for Worldwide Improvement (USAID), with no readability but on whether or not they are going to be impacted by the Trump administration’s assist freeze.

There have been an estimated 263 million malaria circumstances worldwide in 2023—up 11 million on the earlier yr—and 597,000 deaths, in keeping with the WHO.

Regardless of Cambodia’s success, Yeang Chheang considers world elimination of the illness “completely inconceivable” because of human migration.

“It is going to be round,” he stated. “I consider it will not be completely eradicated.”

© 2025 AFP