New official figures indicate that about one out of every 70 Cambodians is HIV
positive. Stephen O'Connell and Bou Saroeun look at the epidemic
that local officals now say could be a threat to national security.
A young man in the final stages of his battle with AIDS,
showing skin lesions, probably Kaposi's sarcoma
DARA
(not his real name) is a 38-year-old former policeman from Sihanouk-ville. At
the end of 1997 he developed lesions. He thought it was a harmless skin problem
but by July 1998 was worried enough to have a blood test. It was
AIDS.
Dara used to frequent brothels. "Sometimes I used condoms,
sometimes I didn't," he said.
Out of work and with failing health, Dara
moved in with relatives in Phnom Penh and treated himself with local medicines.
As Dara's health deteriorated the relatives grew increasingly fearful
that they would catch the disease and demanded he leave their house.
In
June 1999 he was admitted to the AIDS ward at the Russian hospital where he
stayed for six months. There he met Father Jim Noonan of the Maryknolls who told
him that if his health stabilized, he could come and live at the Maryknoll's
Seedlings of Hope hospice on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.
He has lived at
the hospice since January.
The hospice has only 12 beds available for AIDS patients abandoned by their
families, so Dara is one of the lucky few to receive care and shelter
there.
"If I had a chance to talk to the Cambodian people, I really want
them to know HIV and AIDS are real," he says.
"Some people still don't
believe. I want all people who have sex in the brothels or who have lots of sex
partners to use a condom.
An orphan whose parents have both died from Aids and who was
born with HIV nears death
"And I want the Government to increase the
education of the people so they understand how HIV is transmitted," says
Dara.
Cambodia has the most serious HIV/AIDS problem in Asia and has the
potential to become one of the worst affected countries in the world.
The latest estimate from the HIV Sentinel Surveillance 1999 says some
170,000 Cambodians are now infected with HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS.
Dr Tia Phalla, Secretary General of the National AIDS Authority,
said although there has been a slight drop in HIV infection rates among sex
workers under 20 years, Cambodia is still facing a major health
crisis.
"Since HIV infects people who are in the labor force, and mobile
populations like soldiers and police, then when they are infected they will lose
their productivity for their families and the nation. A huge amount of money
will be lost for the country and that will definitely affect the security of our
country."
Phalla said he is greatly concerned about the increasing rates
of infection between men and their wives. "Our worry right now is the role
played by men as 'bridges' for HIV infection from sex workers to housewives," he
said.
The Government has few strategies to combat this trend, said
Phalla. "As experienced all over the world, intervention among couples is very
difficult. We can very easily reduce the epidemic from sex workers to men, but
it is hard to stop the epidemic from men to their wives."
Phalla said
these men should be made to feel responsible for their behavior. "If they are
not yet infected they can preserve the lives of their wife and child. If they
are infected then they can spare the life of their wife so she can take care of
the children," he said.
This 26-year-old woman was a beer-girl and part-time sex worker in the provinces.
When she developed AIDS, her family banished her, and now she is dying, homeless,
on the streets of Phnom Penh.
As more Cambodians become sick with AIDS, Phalla
believes home care for these people is the only practical solution because the
hospitals can't cope. "First we must fight discrimination, then we can use
families to take care of their infected relatives. But it will be very
challenging," he said.
At the end of May the National AIDS Authority will
have a conference with the Ministry of Cults and Religion to map out a strategy
on how to make the best use of Cambodia's 50,000 Buddhist monks in the areas of
HIV prevention and care for those sick with AIDS.
Another initiative
trialed in Sihanoukville, but set to expand nationwide, is the 100% Condom Use
program. "It showed very encouraging results that we can provide safety for sex
workers in sex establishments."
Dany, a 22-year-old prostitute from Prey
Veng, knew nothing of the dangers of HIV until she arrived in Phnom Penh and
learned from an Indradevi Association [a Cambodian NGO working in AIDS
prevention] health team about HIV and other STDs.
Dany is afraid of the
disease and knows there is no cure. Most of her clients are concerned as well,
but occasionally they refuse to use a condom.
Dany said she received
training from Indradevi on how to coax a client into using a condom."Sometimes I
use strong words, sometimes soft words."
She said she often explains to
the men about how HIV is transmitted, passing on the knowledge she gained from
Indradevi.
So the safe-sex message is getting out and the increased use
of condoms in brothels is perhaps slowing the spread of the disease, but Phalla
cautions there is no cause for complacency.
"The epidemic is not
stopping. We must not relax" he said.
Dr Jean-Bernard Castaing, with
Medecins Sans Frontieres, France Section, AIDS Project, treats patients with
AIDS at Phnom Penh's Preah Bat Norodom Sihanouk Hospital.
Every day at
least one patient dies from AIDS in the hospital's infectious diseases ward.
"Working with this disease is psychologically difficult for the staff," said
Castaing.
"This infectious disease ward [with 60 beds] is full, full,
full. Every day at the outpatient consultation [for HIV positive patients] we
see 20 to 30 people. In the ward we have two men for every woman, but in the
outpatient consultation there are the same numbers of men and women.
"We
only treat the opportunistic disease. We cannot treat AIDS with antiviral drugs
because it is very expensive - $200 per month," said Castaing.
Cambodia
has only 8,500 hospital beds. As the estimated 170,000 people already infected
with HIV become sick, they will easily overwhelm the country's hospital system.
Castaing said MSF is helping the Government with ideas to develop a home-based
care system to relieve the already overburdened hospitals.
One positive
trend, said Cas-taing, is that people in the community seem to understand a
little more about HIV/AIDS than they did a few years ago
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