Descriptive assessment of Covid-19 responses and lessons learnt in Cambodia, January 2020 to June 2022
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21880952 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Srean Chhim (0000-0003-1558-1875, National Technical Training Institute, corresponding author), Grace Marie Ku (0000-0002-4276-9104, Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde), Sovathiro Mao (0000-0003-4652-2587, National Technical Training Institute), Willem Van De Put (0000-0002-3306-5287, Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde), Willemien Van Damme (0000-0002-6344-3007, Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Por Ir (0000-0003-3493-2749, National Institute of Public Health), Chhorvann Chhea (0000-0001-6997-2535, National Institute of Public Health), Vandine Or (0000-0003-2700-2893, Ministry of Health) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | e011885 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | BMJ Global Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2059-7908 • E-ISSN: 2059-7908 |
| Publisher | BMJ (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-011885 |
| PMID | 37137538 |
| OpenAlex | W4368357153 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 15 |
As a member state of the International Health Regulations 2005, Cambodia is continuously strengthening its capacity to respond to health emergencies and prevent the international spread of diseases. Despite this, Cambodia’s capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats remained limited at the onset of the pandemic, as was the case in most countries. This paper describes epidemiological phases, response phases, strategy and lessons learnt in Cambodia between 27 January 2020 and 30 June 2022. We classified epidemiological phases in Cambodia into three phases, in which Cambodia responded using eight measures: (1) detect, isolate/quarantine; (2) face coverings, hand hygiene and physical distancing measures; (3) risk communication and community engagement; (4) school closures; (5) border closures; (6) public event and gathering cancellation; (7) vaccination; and (8) lockdown. The measures corresponded to six strategies: (1) setting up and managing a new response system, (2) containing the spread with early response, (3) strengthening the identification of cases and contacts, (4) strengthening care for patients with COVID-19, (5) boosting vaccination coverage and (6) supporting disadvantaged groups. Thirteen lessons were learnt for future health emergency responses. Findings suggest that Cambodia successfully contained the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the first year and quickly attained high vaccine coverage by the second year of the response. The core of this success was the strong political will and high level of cooperation from the public. However, Cambodia needs to further improve its infrastructure for quarantining and isolating cases and close contacts and laboratory capacity for future health emergencies
Business · Disadvantaged · Disease · Economic growth · Environmental health · Health care · Hygiene · International Health Regulations · Pandemic · Political science · Public health · Vaccination · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Medicine · Nursing · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research · Epidemiology
| Citations per year | 1.5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |