Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia, Inc. - 28 Nov 1995
The report, compiled by the Health Ministry and the World Health Organisation, said that 86 people had contracted full-blown AIDS as of mid-1995 and nine had since died, including one child.
"As of October 1995, more than 3,000 people in the Kingdom of Cambodia have been reported as having antibodies to HIV," it said of the human immunodeficiency virus which progressively destroys the ability of the body to fight infections and some cancers.
The term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection.
While only 3,000 people have been confirmed as HIV-positive, the report said health officials "estimated that 50,000 to 90,000 people in Cambodia may have antibodies to HIV."
These findings were based on surveys this year among police, the military, prostitutes, and pregnant women in Phnom Penh and eight provinces.
The report also noted a gender ratio for HIV infection of three males to one female with about 90 percent of those infected aged 15 to 35 years and said: "This trend poses serious risk to the labour force of Cambodia."
The spread of HIV is blamed primarily on sexual behaviour and the rapid growth in the commercial sex trade since the signing of the Cambodian peace pact in 1991, when the first tests were conducted and showed 0.08 percent of blood donors infected.
The figure, as of October, had risen to 6.6 percent (326 of 4,947) of blood donors tested in Phnom Penh and 4.2 percent (623 of 14,778) of donors nationwide.
Health officials are also concerned about the preference for injections for medical treatment and Cambodia's proximity to opium-producing countries.
HIV can be spread by infected syringes.
A recent U.N. report said Cambodia's campaign against the spread of AIDS had been set back by the forced closer of brothels and authorities' harassment of sex workers.
Michael Kirby, special U.N. representative for human rights in Cambodia, wrote that the campaign had also been set back by the removal of posters promoting the use of condoms.
The government replied that the authorities were not harassing sex workers but trying to "contain and control" them and said posters had not been ordered to be removed while it launched an intensive campaign through media channels.
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