Nearly 80 people in Kandal province’s Ponhea Leu district have been infected with chikungunya and dengue fever, though most of them have now recovered. Officials are claiming that they had fallen ill because of their poor hygiene standards.

Ponhea Leu district governor Thorn Sovann told The Post on August 9 that 78 people in his district had been infected with chikungunya and/or dengue fever since July. However, thanks to the work of their doctors, almost all of the patients have now recovered and have been discharged from the hospital and only six of them are still being treated.

“These people were infected with these diseases from place to place and from person to person. It was not a large-scale outbreak and their illnesses weren’t too severe so it should not affect their lives going forward because almost everyone has now recovered,” he said.

Kandal provincial hospital department director Kuoy Bunthoeurn told The Post that the infection was not a large-scale disease out-break, rather it was due to person-to-person transmission because they had poor hygiene standards during the rainy season with its larger mosquito population.

He added that after receiving information regarding the infections, health officials sprayed mosquito repellent and the anti-mosquito larvae chemical Abate around people’s houses where the disease was known to have occurred.

He continued that the officials had also educated the villagers to always maintain good hygiene standards and sleep under mosquito nets to minimise the number of mosquito bites they receive.

“Because it is the rainy season, we have sent our officials to educate people and make use of Abate. We call on the people to get rid of things that act as mosquito shelters and not to leave standing water near their houses because it is a source of mosquitoes and therefore the infectious agents,” he stated.

Provincial governor Kong Sophorn led a team late last week to meet with the people recovering at Hun Sen Tep Pranom High School in Vihear Luong commune of the district.

At the meeting, he instructed them to be careful and avoid chikungunya and dengue fever, especially in tandem with Covid-19. All the problems required was to live cleanly and effectively implement anti-mosquito measures and the Covid measures of do’s and don’ts.

The provincial governor also ordered the provincial health officials to continue the use of Abate in the area to kill mosquito larvae in order to eradicate the source of these diseases.