Cambodian HIV outbreak grows as migrant workers return for tests
The number of people testing positive for the virus that causes Aids in a remote area of northwestern Cambodia is continuing to climb, as migrant workers who had been patients of a doctor facing murder charges over the outbreak return to their villages for testing, local officials said.
The number of people testing positive for the virus that causes Aids in a remote area of northwestern Cambodia is continuing to climb, as migrant workers who had been patients of a doctor facing murder charges over the outbreak return to their villages for testing, local officials said.
More than 160 people from Roka commune had tested HIV-positive at Battambang provincial hospital by Christmas Eve, sources said, ranging from infants to the elderly and including Buddhist monks.
Staff at the government-run health centre in the commune, however, declined to confirm or deny the figure.
Chief nurse By Beng Sor said provincial officials told him not to tell reporters about any new infections as "it could damage the government's reputation".
But Seuom Chhorm, a member of the commune council for Roka village, said residents in three of six villages had tested positive for the virus since mass testing began on December 9.
Some former patients of Yem Chrin began returning from Thailand for tests last week, he said, estimating that about 10 per cent of the commune's population of about 8,000 were migrant workers.
Yem Chrin, who has practised in the commune for 21 years, has admitted reusing needles on multiple patients. Besides murder charges, he is accused of operating an unlicensed clinic.
By Beng Sor said Yem Chrin had encouraged patients to believe that injections were more effective than pills.
Several Roka residents said they had received as many as 40 injections to treat a single ailment. Health officials, who asked not to be named, said it was not uncommon for unlicensed doctors in Cambodia to prolong patients' illnesses to charge them more for treatment.
