Malaria-related deaths declined by 35 per cent in 2011 from the total fatalities in 2010, the National Center for Malaria said yesterday.

Char Meng Chuor, director of the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control, said that there were 62,690 cases of malaria in 2011, an increase of 7 per cent from 2010’s 58,700 cases.

“We got success in fighting malaria [deaths] last year because we spread our volunteer agency in the villages, which face high rates of malaria infection,” Char Meng Chuor said.

“We have two volunteers who are in the villages to stand by. They have knowledge about how to protect and treat malaria, and they have medicines and tools to check blood to find the malaria virus.”

He added that most people who had to be treated in hospital were from Ratanakkiri, Kratie, Preah Vihear and Pursat provinces.

Char Meng Chuor said that if the death toll continues to decrease at such a dramatic rate, the Kingdom would reach its development goal of zero malaria-related deaths.

The National Center for Parasitology, Entomology and Malaria Control will distribute more than 1, 8 million mosquito nets in the first week of February to 15 provinces.