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Regional Medical Research Facility Launched


This Aug. 29, 2009 photo shows village malaria worker Phoun Sokha, 47, showing his malaria medicine kit at O'treng village on the outskirts of Pailin, Cambodia.
This Aug. 29, 2009 photo shows village malaria worker Phoun Sokha, 47, showing his malaria medicine kit at O'treng village on the outskirts of Pailin, Cambodia.
Cambodia has launched a regional medical research platform, aiming to boost knowledge for Cambodian scientists and to cooperate with partners in the region.

The research institution was founded by French researchers and will be housed at the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh. It will help research work for emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases, officials said.

Cambodia struggles with a number of infectious diseases, including drug-resistant malaria and avian influenza.

Ly Sovann, deputy director of the communicable disease department at the Ministry of Health, said Tuesday the institution will allow Cambodia to conduct its own tests and research on diseases.

Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, a virologist who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2008, told VOA Khmer the regional institution could contribute to greater cooperation throughout Asia on disease research. “Here it is open in Cambodia, and we welcome others to join,” she said.

Vincent Deubel, director of the Pasteur Institute in Cambodia, said the regional cooperation initiative is the first of its kind, allowing better cooperation and the sharing of ideas on diseases and their prevention.

“Through this institution, we will build a network of cooperation from others,” he said. “We will get more knowledge from our partners so that we can exchange new ideas.”
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