An early, warm wet season is being blamed for one of the worst outbreaks of Dengue Fever to hit Cambodia and the rest of SE Asia in recent history.

A British adoptive father, along with other volunteers, set up a UK Registered Charity, The Cambodia Children's Charity, that supports orphanages and a school, that is now soliciting donations to help deal directly with the impact of the Dengue outbreak.

From the dad, Mark Purser:

The Cambodian government cannot cope with an emergency on this scale -annual government spending on healthcare is about $3 per person (source:World Bank). The WHO and other international organisations simply cannot react quickly enough in rural locations to save the most vulnerable victims of this outbreak - the children.

Upon receiving the report, we immediately sent over funds to cover the cost of infant formula, medicines and medical equipment, clothing and blankets. However, more is needed and we desperately need your help - any donation you are able to make will literally help to save lives.

There's more on the Dengue outbreak and the toll it's taking here.

Continuing with health news, officials from UNAIDS and the Ministry of Health are voicing concern that donor complacency and public apathy could combine to result in a new AIDS epidemic despite a considerable fall in infection rates.

Although only 0.9%, that still indicates 65,000 Cambodians are living with HIV/AIDS, and new infections are happening.

Warnings against a "false sense of security" and urging of international partners to keep the money coming in abound.

A group from the UAE ... that's Dubai and the other Emirates, in case the letters don't ring a bell ... are heading to Cambodia to build houses for families with Tabitha USA ... the group my friend Gay has been working with for the past two years.

Good for them. Apparently, the house building is habit forming, and a more helpful addiction would be hard to find.

This story, "Cambodia's cowboy capitalism" is all about money coming in. The numbers in the article are startling ... 11.4% pre annum growth; $475 million in direct foreign investment; 88% of the population feeling that growing inequality in wealth is a pressing issue ... but the report provides enough context to get the point. That would be .... ? Well, that the country needs work, but we know that.

For a look at life in Phnom Penh ten years after the coup that put Hun Sen in the big chair, this story goes down in the dumps for the scoop, literally.

Quoting Transparency International's rating of 151 out of 163 on its "government corruption index", worries about massive offshore oil wealth pouring in soon and what that will do to the enthusiasm surrounding corruption and possible resulting political unrest are rife.

Continued in the next post.