BREAKING: Cambodian doctor jailed for 25 years for infecting 200 people with HIV

[geovalin]

Phak Seangly and Alice Cuddy

The unlicensed doctor responsible for a mass HIV outbreak in Battambang province that has infected hundreds was this morning found guilty of torture with aggravating circumstances and sentenced to 25 years in prison. As the judge read the verdict, the defendant, Yem Chroeum, stared at the floor in silence.

The outbreak of the virus in Battambang’s quiet Roka village was first detected last December. Almost 300 people, including children, have now been diagnosed as HIV-positive.

About 30 police were stationed outside the court as Chroeum, who had been working as a doctor in the community for almost two decades, was led in this morning.

read more: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/doctor-hiv-case-gets-25-years

[geovalin]

Cambodian doctor jailed for 25 years for infecting 200 people with HIV

An unlicensed Cambodian doctor was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday after he was found guilty of infecting more than 200 people with HIV, including some who later died.

The case has shone a spotlight on the chronically underfunded healthcare system in the impoverished nation where many have to rely on self-taught or unlicensed medics to receive treatment.

Yem Chhrin, 55, was facing the prospect of life in prison but his murder charge was reduced by the court to a lesser manslaughter offence, his defence lawyer said.

“My client still insists he is innocent,” lawyer Em Sovann told Agence France-Presse by telephone after the verdict was announced. “I will represent him if he wants to appeal this conviction.”

The rural doctor was convicted of infecting residents in the remote village of Roka in western Battambang province by reusing dirty needles.

For millions of Cambodians – especially the poor and those in isolated regions – unlicensed doctors are the only realistic healthcare option for everyday ailments.

World Bank figures say Cambodia, one of Asia’s poorest nations, has just 0.2 doctors for every 100,000 people, on a par with Afghanistan.

Similarly impoverished Myanmar has 0.4 per 100,000, while France boasts 3.2 per 100,000.

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Much of Cambodia’s shortfall is made up by unlicensed practitioners, many of whom are self taught. But the HIV infections in Roka shocked the country and saw the government vow to crack down on unlicensed healthcare providers.

Some of those who were infected testified at the trial. Loeum Lorn, 52, said he and four of his family members had contracted HIV. “We are his [the doctor’s] victims but it was only later on that we discovered we were infected,” he told reporters in November outside the trial.

He added that about 10 villagers who were infected, mostly elderly, had since died.

During the trial, prosecutors accused the doctor of hiding the facts and changing his story.

source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/03/cambodian-doctor-jailed-for-25-years-for-infecting-200-people-with-hiv?CMP=twt_gu

[HLover]

Dr. Death, very sad.

[Sheryl]

.....For millions of Cambodians – especially the poor and those in isolated regions – unlicensed doctors are the only realistic healthcare option for everyday ailments.

source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/03/cambodian-doctor-jailed-for-25-years-for-infecting-200-people-with-hiv?CMP=twt_gu

Extremely inaccurate and misleading.

Cambodia does not have a large doctor to population ratio but it makes very effective use of other cadres of health professionals (nurses, midwives, the equivalent of physician assistants etc) to staff its primary care facilities...and there was and is a fully functional government Health Center right in where this occurred. Lack of options/other sources of care was not a factor in this.

What was a factor is that there is a widespread, inaccurate belief that treatment with injections and IVs is always "better". Government Health centers are required to follow Ministry of Health protocols, which in turn were developed in accordance with international standards. These do not include IV drips or injections for the common cold etc which is what this man was providing on demand, and at a very low price (made possible, as it turned out, by reusing needles and syringes). He was wildly popular as a result and people preferred to go to him since they would get what they wanted rather than what was in fact medically indicated.

There is an urgent need to better inform the public as thsi sort of illegal practice is very much demand-driven and for reasons that have nothing to do with a shortage of trained health care providers.

[bangon04]

I seem to remember that Doctors were targeted by the Khmer Rouge, so a lot were wiped out or driven away.

However is the current education system unable to produce the new generation of doctors? They could import them from Philippines if all else fails.....