T he World Health Organization's regional chief visited the Cambodian capital's

red light district Mar 4 to inspect a sexual diseases clinic and talk with

prostitutes about AIDS awareness.

"This young girl is only 18 years old

and been here three months yet she's never heard of AIDS," said Dr Sang Tae Han,

emerging from a street side brothel.

Han said there was a need for more

education about sexually transmitted diseases and pledged continued support for

the community clinic.

The clinic, funded by the World Health Organization

(WHO) is running an educational program about sexually transmitted diseases in

addition to providing treatment for sex workers, said Jacqui Dunn, a British

health worker.

She said gonorrhea was rife among the estimated 200

brothels in Tuol Kork, a two-km-long strip of wood and thatch

parlors.

The prostitute population numbered about 1,200 and was equally

divided between Cambodian and Vietnamese, she said.

Cambodian prostitutes

were more likely to be infected with gonorrhea than Vietnamese because they were

culturally more shy about treatment for sexual disease, she said.

Dunn

said the clinic was the only one of its type in Cambodia.

 

- Reuters