HIV village: One more dies in Roka commune

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Pech Sotheary

Another person in Battambang’s Roka commune died from complications relating to HIV/AIDS yesterday afternoon, marking the latest fatality in a locale that has suffered from a widespread outbreak of the virus discovered late last year.

Roka commune chief Sim Pov said that Tat Choy, 89, was pronounced dead at 1:30pm.

“She died at home on Monday,” she said. “She took medicine regularly, but she was very old.”

More than 200 people in the commune have been affected by the virus, and thus far eight people have succumbed to the illness. Health officials have been consistently monitoring the residents’ conditions and providing them with anti-retroviral treatment (ART), said Voeung Bunreth, the director of Battambang’s Provincial Health Department.

“We have provided them with drugs and they are doing OK, though the elderly are concerned about their reactions,” he said. “But we have explained to them to take the drugs regularly.”

Officials have said that elderly HIV/AIDS-positive persons are at higher risk due to the increased likelihood of co-infections. The Roka outbreak has been traced to the alleged reuse of contaminated needles by an unlicensed doctor.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hiv-village-one-more-dies-roka-commune

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Two more in Roka test positive for HIV: gov’t

Thu, 23 April 2015

Pech Sotheary

Two more people in Battambang province’s Roka commune have been diagnosed this week as HIV-positive, following an outbreak of the virus first reported in the area in December, health officials said yesterday.

Dr Ly Penh Sun, director of the Ministry of Health’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD Control (NCHADS), said the two patients, “a 6-year-old and an adult . . . are not newly infected, [but] they migrated so have only just had their blood tested”.

Penh Sun did not give further details about the pair, but said their diagnosis brings the total number of people carrying the virus in the area to 250.

He added that the ministry was expanding services in the area by constructing a three-storey building next to the commune’s health care centre “equipped with beds, a laboratory, and so on, because previously those seriously ill had to be sent to the provincial hospital”.

Bi Beng Sar, an official at Roka’s health care centre, said eight people have died from the virus since the outbreak was first detected. He added that special attention was being paid to elderly HIV/AIDS carriers, who count for the majority of fatalities.

“We are monitoring their health conditions and it is okay. They are coming to collect anti-retrovirals regularly,” he said.

An 89-year-old in the commune died from HIV/AIDS-related complications on Monday.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/two-more-roka-test-positive-hiv-govt