Cambodia village reports mass HIV/AIDS infection

[geovalin]

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian health authorities Tuesday said more than 80 people, including children and the elderly, who tested positive for HIV/AIDS in a single remote village may have been infected by contaminated needles.

Hundreds of panicked residents of the village in Battambang province in the country's west have flocked to a health center for testing since news of the mass infection emerged last week, with a total of 82 having been confirmed as being infected.

"Of 556 people tested, 72 of them came back positive for HIV/AIDS," Teng Kunthy, Secretary General of the National AIDS Authority, told AFP, adding that 14 of the people infected were children.

"This is a higher rate than usual... It may be caused by the use of the same tools such as needles," he said.

"This is our preliminary conclusion... we are working to collect more evidence."

A further 10 people were found to be infected with the virus on Tuesday when more villagers arrived at the health center, also in Battambang province, Hei Sik, a local HIV/AIDS program director, told AFP by telephone.

"According to villagers, they suspected the infection may have been caused by injections from private local medics," he said.

"This is a surprisingly high rate, the highest that I have ever seen. Some of them are women aged in their 70s and 80s," Hei Sik added.

Cambodia has been widely hailed for its efforts in tackling HIV/AIDS.

The National AIDS Authority says the rate of HIV infection among people aged 15 to 49 has declined from 0.6 percent in 2013 to 0.4 percent in 2014.

Currently, Cambodia estimates more than 73,000 people live with the disease.

- See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2014/Dec-16/281234-cambodia-village-reports-mass-hivaids-infection.ashx#sthash.zKGEK51l.dpuf

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian health authorities Tuesday said more than 80 people, including children and the elderly, who tested positive for HIV/AIDS in a single remote village may have been infected by contaminated needles.

Hundreds of panicked residents of the village in Battambang province in the country's west have flocked to a health center for testing since news of the mass infection emerged last week, with a total of 82 having been confirmed as being infected.

"Of 556 people tested, 72 of them came back positive for HIV/AIDS," Teng Kunthy, Secretary General of the National AIDS Authority, told AFP, adding that 14 of the people infected were children.

"This is a higher rate than usual... It may be caused by the use of the same tools such as needles," he said.

"This is our preliminary conclusion... we are working to collect more evidence."

A further 10 people were found to be infected with the virus on Tuesday when more villagers arrived at the health center, also in Battambang province, Hei Sik, a local HIV/AIDS program director, told AFP by telephone.

"According to villagers, they suspected the infection may have been caused by injections from private local medics," he said.

"This is a surprisingly high rate, the highest that I have ever seen. Some of them are women aged in their 70s and 80s," Hei Sik added.

Cambodia has been widely hailed for its efforts in tackling HIV/AIDS.

The National AIDS Authority says the rate of HIV infection among people aged 15 to 49 has declined from 0.6 percent in 2013 to 0.4 percent in 2014.

Currently, Cambodia estimates more than 73,000 people live with the disease.

- See more at: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2014/Dec-16/281234-cambodia-village-reports-mass-hivaids-infection.ashx#sthash.zKGEK51l.dpuf

Agence France Presse
PHNOM PENH: Cambodian health authorities Tuesday said more than 80 people, including children and the elderly, who tested positive for HIV/AIDS in a single remote village may have been infected by contaminated needles.
Hundreds of panicked residents of the village in Battambang province in the country's west have flocked to a health center for testing since news of the mass infection emerged last week, with a total of 82 having been confirmed as being infected.
"Of 556 people tested, 72 of them came back positive for HIV/AIDS," Teng Kunthy, Secretary General of the National AIDS Authority, told AFP, adding that 14 of the people infected were children.
"This is a higher rate than usual... It may be caused by the use of the same tools such as needles," he said.
"This is our preliminary conclusion... we are working to collect more evidence."
A further 10 people were found to be infected with the virus on Tuesday when more villagers arrived at the health center, also in Battambang province, Hei Sik, a local HIV/AIDS program director, told AFP by telephone.
"According to villagers, they suspected the infection may have been caused by injections from private local medics," he said.
"This is a surprisingly high rate, the highest that I have ever seen. Some of them are women aged in their 70s and 80s," Hei Sik added.
Cambodia has been widely hailed for its efforts in tackling HIV/AIDS.
The National AIDS Authority says the rate of HIV infection among people aged 15 to 49 has declined from 0.6 percent in 2013 to 0.4 percent in 2014.
Currently, Cambodia estimates more than 73,000 people live with the disease.

[geovalin]

HIV nightmare in Battambang

Wed, 17 December 2014

Mom Kunthear and Sarah Taguiam

More than 70 residents in Battambang’s Sangke district – including children as young as 3 – have tested positive for HIV after some of them received injections from an unlicensed doctor now on the run from authorities, villagers and officials said.

Following examinations by health officials starting on December 8, 72 out of 556 patients in the district tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, National AIDS Authority (NAA) secretary-general Dr Teng Kunthy said yesterday.

Forty-four women, 14 men, seven girls and seven boys have been affected. Their ages range from 3 to 82 years old.

“This is a very unusual situation,” Kunthy said. “For now, this is the number that we have, but there might be more.”

During interviews with the NAA, at least 30 villagers reported receiving injections from an unlicensed private doctor in the area, he added.

The shots were administered for a variety of maladies, from typhoid to fevers, which may be why infections spanned such a wide age group.

Seoum Chhorn, deputy chief of Roka commune, where the outbreak was centred, tested positive, as did his wife, 13-year-old granddaughter and 9-year-old grandson.

“I suspect we got this from the injection that a doctor in this commune did to the villagers who often went to get services from him,” Chhorn said, adding that several other families in the area have more than one member affected.

“This doctor is very famous in the commune, and every villager got treatment service from him, but we do not know what kind of medicine he injected in us.”

Chhorn, however, said the doctor, whom he identified as Yem Chren, fled the commune and escaped to Takeo province a week ago with his wife.

Since Sunday, health officials have been unsuccessfully trying to reach out to Chren through his family, Kunthy said.

“We tried to invite him to talk, but unfortunately, he’s gone now,” he said. “We just want to know exactly what happened, and we’ve asked the family and the commune to report if they hear anything.”

For now, the infected villagers are being monitored and have received antiretroviral drug treatments from the NAA.

Their blood samples will be sent to Phnom Penh for further testing, said Battambang provincial health department director Veoung Bunreth.

Further blood tests will be conducted around the district to check for more HIV-positive residents.

“I really pity my grandson and granddaughter so much, because they’re very young but they have this disease,” Chhorn said. “I want to appeal to the Ministry of Health and the government to intervene and help us immediately and take action against the doctor who treated and cheated the villagers when he is unskilled.”

Major crime officers from Battambang provincial police are now in control of the investigation, which is being assisted by the Child Protection Unit (CPU).

“The Child Protection Unit is heading to Battambang early morning [today] with a group of experts to liaise with major crime officers in the investigation of this alleged perpetrator that might have spread HIV and affected children within a small amount of communes,” CPU director of operations James McCabe said.

UNAIDS country director Marie-Odile Emond called the situation “highly unusual”.

“It’s very rare indeed to have such a high number of people affected in the same place, that’s why it’s really worth investigating what happened,” Emond said.

From 1991 to 1993, HIV/AIDS cases reached almost epidemic proportions in Cambodia.

Through random blood testing, health officials recorded a 150 per cent surge in the rate of incidence among voluntary patients, a figure that did not include sex workers.

But since the early 1990s, Cambodia has made significant strides in improving its national HIV/AIDS response.

Programs, increased government funding and a focus on educating communities about preventative measures have resulted in steep declines in HIV rates, according to NAA figures, to as low as 0.7 per cent in 2013 and 0.6 per cent this year.

Of the estimated 75,000 people living with HIV, most receive appropriate treatments that allow them to live healthy lives.

“Cambodia is doing a lot of good in combating HIV, so it’s really important that we clarify what happened to stop its spread quickly,” Emond said.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hiv-nightmare-battambang

[Sheryl]

Untrained "bet phum" are very common in Cambodia and basically just injectionists...an IV or injection for everyone, no matter the problem. Even a common cold gets an IV. Unfortunately people like this so it is demand-driven.

This specific problem is unusual as they do usually use sterile disposable needles/syringes and IV tubing/bags, these being inexpensive and plentiful. Obviously though this particular person reused needles or IV tubing.

Even when they use sterile equipment, they do plenty of other harm in terms of wrong treatments. I've seen perfectly health young people die from inappropriate treatment for simple colds and the like. Very sad.

[geovalin]

Fear, anger in Battambang

Thu, 18 December 2014

May Titthara, Mom Kunthear and Shane Worrell

Battambang province

An allegedly unlicensed doctor was taken into police custody yesterday as anger escalated in response to 106 people testing positive for HIV in Battambang’s Sangke district.

As the grim reality of the infections began sinking in, villagers made threats to kill a “famous” doctor they allege administered injections to at least 30 people in the area. Those who have tested positive for HIV are aged between 3 and 82 years old and include monks.

A source close to the case confirmed that a doctor had been detained by police in Battambang province.

“He is assisting with inquiries at this stage,” the source said.

The family of the man villagers accuse, Yem Chroeum, confirmed that he was “with police” but said it was for his own protection. They were adamant that he was not facing charges.

“He did not flee. He has been busy [elsewhere],” said son-in-law Chhem Choeun, 32. “When he knew there were problems, he wanted to return to face the villagers. But police told him to wait.… They needed him to appear in front of police if needed.”

Chet Vanny, Battambang provincial deputy police chief, denied that Chroeum was in custody.

“We have not arrested anyone or provided protection for a doctor at our station,” he said. “We are still investigating.”

Officials began health examinations in the district on December 8, and by Tuesday had discovered that at least 72 people had tested positive for HIV.

As health officials and NGOs rushed to the area yesterday, by 5:30pm further tests inflated that figure to 106 out of 895 people examined, according to National AIDS Authority (NAA) figures.

NAA Secretary-General Dr Teng Kunthy said the reason for the infections was not yet clear.

“The people who know clearly that they have not got this through sex may have got this through an injection from the village physician,” he said. “But we need more evidence, and we have to study and interview more people.”

Health officials, Kunthy added, wanted to speak with Chroeum to determine what kind of procedures he had been following.

But Roeun Butreth, Battambang director of the provincial health department, said a preliminary report had shown that the HIV infections were “not due to injections”.

“Authorities are investigating the cause of the infections,” he said.

However, as the number of positive tests grew yesterday, so did the attendant anger.

“If the other villagers and I see [Chroeum], then we will kill him,” said Seoum Chhorm, deputy chief of Roka commune.

A second blood test yesterday showed another positive HIV reading for Chhorm, 63, his wife and two grandchildren. “Police cannot stop us killing him.”

Chhorm said he has known Chroeum for more than 10 years, because Chroeum had married one of his relatives.

“I also knew that he himself has HIV, but I forgot; I did not think he would do that to us,” he said.

Choeun, Chroeum’s son-in-law, denied this, saying that “all of us, including my father-in-law, have been blood-tested. They have found nothing.”

Chroeum, he added, was a gentle man who treated people day and night when needed.

Sam Lorm, 80, told the Post outside the Roka commune health centre that he had tested positive to HIV.

“I always call this doctor to get intravenous injections whenever I have a cold or the flu. But if I had not had my blood tested, I would not have believed this. I am still strong,” he said.

People queue at a medical clinic to be tested for HIV in Battambang’s Sangke district yesterday. Heng Chivoan

“I am not afraid, because I am old now. But I am sorry for my 16-year-old [relative] who is studying. He just got injected three months ago.”

Other villagers stood crying outside the health centre. Among them, a devastated Leap Loeut, 55, said she was still coming to terms with the fact that she had tested positive.

She had never had sex with anyone but her husband and regularly warned her children about health risks.

“I tell them to be careful of HIV, but now I have had it without knowing,” she said.

Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An urged police to arrest any unlicensed doctors responsible for spreading HIV among the population.

“We have to find the reason why it has spread like this,” Sam An said. “We have to take strong action against perpetrators. We cannot allow unlicensed doctors to open clinics that make villagers suffer.”

But James McCabe, director of operations at the Child Protection Unit, said a thorough investigation was needed before the cause of the infections in Sangke district could be established.

“We’re still in the very early stages of investigating,” he said. “This will not happen overnight. We need to find out what actually happened and make sure it cannot happen again.”

Buth Bunthoeun, Sangke district police chief, said police had yet to determine a cause.

Despite rumours Chroeum had fled the province, he had actually gone to Takeo province on December 8 for his mother’s funeral, Bunthoeun said.

“How can we arrest him without evidence?”

Kunthy, from the NAA, said a team had visited the area to provide support to the victims.

“It’s not a problem, we have provided them care packages,” he said. Kunthy clarified this comment by saying that those who had tested positive were being offered adequate support and that the NAA was “very sorry” about what had happened.

UNAIDS country director Marie-Odile Emond declined to comment yesterday.

Blame was also being directed towards a system that enabled people to get away with working as unlicensed as doctors.

“From now on, I will stop believing in all doctors. They do not pay attention to the patients; they think about only themselves,” said Chhorm, the deputy commune chief.

“The state hospitals never care about the health of their own people – that’s why they allow the private clinics and private doctors to spread their services everywhere and end up with a situation like this.”

MOM KUNTHEAR AND SHANE WORRELL REPORTED FROM PHNOM PENH

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fear-anger-battambang