Monday, 26 January 2009

92% Cambodians with HIV/AIDS receive treatment

www.chinaview.cn
2009-01-26

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- More than 92 percent of the Cambodians living with HIV/AIDS have been provided with anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment in 2008, a 7 percent rise over 2007, national media said on Monday.

With this, Cambodia is coming closer to its objective of making ARV drugs available to nearly all who need them by 2010, Mean ChhiVun, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STDs, was quoted by English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily as saying.

"We now cover 92 percent. Our target is 97 percent in 2010. The universal access target is about 85 percent, but for Cambodia, we want to provide anti-retroviral treatment for all," he said.

The treatment was given free of charge last year to 31,989 patients, including 3,067 children, in 77 government-run health centers and partner organizations in Cambodia, he added.

According to official figures, around 100,000 Cambodians have died of HIV/AIDS since 1991 and some 120,000 now live with the disease.

The kingdom has brought its prevalence rate down to below 0.9 percent from the peak of 3.3 percent in 1997.

Editor: Yang Lina

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