|
 Prosecutors charged the medic with murder last month after the
spread of the virus that causes AIDS among scores of people came to
light.
The 212 people with HIV were discovered after authorities tested a
total of 1,940 people in the district in Battambang province in the
northwest where the medic treated people.
The government and international health agencies including the World
Health Organization and UN AIDS released their findings in a
statement on Saturday but they did not mention the medic.
However, Health Minister Mam Bunheng urged health authorities to
strictly follow protocols on the use of clean equipment and he vowed
to eliminate new HIV infections by 2020.
"The Ministry of Health is ensuring health facilities to follow
universal precautions and use clean and sterile equipment," Mam
Bunheng said.
The medic, Yem Chrin, provided cheap health services to the poor and
was believed to have possessed healing powers, police said.
[to top of second column] |
The government and health organizations said there appeared to be a
link between injections and HIV among the people they tested.
"The study showed that the percentage of people that reported
receiving an injection or intravenous infusion as part of their
health treatment was significantly higher among the people who
tested positive for HIV than the people who were HIV negative," they
said in their statement.
The case has been a blow to Cambodia's largely successful efforts
against HIV infection after the virus first spread quickly through
the impoverished country in the 1990s.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
