Country Profile Cambodia

The country of Cambodia is undergoing some significant changes as have all the countries in their region during the last 50 years and more. Unfortunately, the statistics show that Cambodia is falling behind its neighbors in these developments; the prevalence of disease, a high infant mortality rate, and lack of basic health services all indicate that Cambodia has some catching up to do.

Cambodia’s population numbers are approximately 14.8 million with only 22 percent of the people living in urban areas. This puts them at less than have of the regional average demonstrating a lower level of industrialization.

While the rest of the region has been increasing their expenditures on health care Cambodia has remained almost the same as they were 15 years ago. This disparity puts Cambodia at less than 1/10th the per capita health care spending of the region. The massively underdeveloped medical workforce is simply not enough to handle the challenges that Cambodia faces at this time.

The results of this lack of medical development can be seen in an infant mortality rate that is much higher than other countries in the area. 30 percent of these deaths are caused by birth complications and another 37 percent by disease. These numbers have gone down somewhere between 25 and 30 percent during the last 15 years, but they still remain four times higher than the region.

44 percent of the population uses skilled medical personnel to assist in their births compared to a 92 percent average. This may be somewhat due to reliance on traditional and folk medicines as well as home births. The wealth disparity statistics show that the difference between urban and rural mortality is much less than that between the richest and poorest 20 percent of the population. This would suggest that the costs of health services make them somewhat prohibitive.

In some areas Cambodia is improving, though showing little sign of catching up with their neighbors. Stunted growth in children generally caused by malnutrition has gone down by 1/3rd, indicating an increase in the availability of healthy food in the poorer segment of the population. The prevalence of tuberculosis is more than four times that of the average, though the immunization rate of Cambodia is on par with their neighbors. This is likely due to assistance from outside organizations. The availability of proper sanitation and clean drinking water has also gone up steadily, though mostly in urban areas.

Several other statistics indicate what kind of condition Cambodia is currently in. Low contraceptive use, an HIV rate that is five times higher than average, lower levels of health care, lower life expectancy, and less obesity are all the classic signs of a developing, wealth-stratified country