News
Experts divided on sentencing in HIV outbreak case
Following the 25-year sentence for an unlicensed doctor who caused an outbreak of HIV, rights, development and legal experts consider whether justice was served.The questions revolve around how many years imprisonment should be meted out by the court in a case that may have been ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/experts-divided-on-sentencing-in-hiv-outbreak-case/3087794.html
Jobs or health: A Cambodian village's stark choice
In Roka commune, money is getting tight.After an HIV outbreak in 2014 saw 264 people infected in the small northwest Cambodian village, aid flowed in, showily. The prime minister’s wife delivered hundreds of kilos of rice, the health minister brought socks and sarongs, nongovernmental organizations ...
Abby Seiff
http://www.ucanews.com/news/jobs-or-health-a-cambodian-villages-stark-choice/74673
After shock of HIV outbreak, facing the future
Som Saron has not worked since testing positive for HIV late last year. Taking care of her young niece at her parents’ home in Roka commune last week, the 37-year-old said that a fear of being stigmatized kept her from walking the community’s gravel roads selling ...
Khy Sovuthy and Anthony Jensen
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-shock-of-hiv-outbreak-facing-the-future-99077/
Roka residents turn out for trial
An unlicensed doctor allegedly at the centre of a medical scandal that has seen almost 300 residents of Battambang province’s Roka village infected with HIV proclaimed his innocence during the first day of his highly anticipated trial yesterday. After the judge read the charges to ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/roka-residents-turn-out-trial
'No intention to infect,' Cambodian health worker says at HIV outbreak trial
An unlicensed health worker charged in Cambodia with causing a mass HIV infection by treating patients with reused needles said on Tuesday that he had always sterilized needles before using them and has no idea how the infection was spread. ...
Hum Chamroeun
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/trial-10202015134546.html
Medic in HIV outbreak case to be tried next week
The trial of an unlicensed medic who was charged with murder after allegedly infecting more than 270 people with HIV will begin on Tuesday, a court official said on Friday. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/medic-in-hiv-outbreak-case-to-be-tried-next-week-97461/
Cambodian health worker blamed in HIV spread will be tried next week
An unlicensed health worker charged in Cambodia with murder and other crimes after allegedly causing a mass HIV infection by treating patients with reused needles will be brought to trial next week, sources said. ...
Hum Chamroeum
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/tried-10152015165549.html
HIV patients in Cambodia’s Roka commune too weak to work
Patients living with HIV/AIDS in northwestern Cambodia’s Battambang province have called on the government for help in supporting their families as they are too weak to work, some nine months after an outbreak of HIV in the region saw more than 270 residents test positive ...
Hum Chamreoun
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/hiv-09082015131559.html
Resident of HIV village dies at 76
Another HIV-positive resident of Battambang province’s Roka commune passed away this week, marking the latest fatality in a locale where hundreds have been infected with the virus. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/resident-hiv-village-dies-76
HIV village demands access to healthcare
Members of a community in Battambang where an unlicensed doctor allegedly infected more than 200 people with HIV earlier this year have demanded free general healthcare, a provision usually reserved only for the country’s most poor. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hiv-village-demands-access-healthcare
Two more test positive for HIV in Roka commune
Two more people have tested positive for HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune this month, bringing the total number infected to 272 since an outbreak of the virus was first detected in December, a health official said Wednesday. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/two-more-test-positive-for-hiv-in-roka-commune-82447/
Elderly villager dies of HIV/AIDS in western Cambodia
An 89-year-old woman infected with HIV/AIDS has become the eighth person to die of the deadly virus in a village in remote western Cambodia, after being infected by an unauthorized medical worker who reused syringes. ...
Hum Chamroeun
http://bit.ly/1HTw1jL
HIV-positive commune official dies in Battambang
A deputy commune chief in Battambang province’s Roka commune, where an outbreak of HIV has infected nearly 250 villagers, died Monday. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hiv-positive-commune-official-dies-in-battambang-81542/
Cambodian villagers say medical treatment is a pain following government directive
Villagers in a remote district of northeast Cambodia’s Kratie province say obtaining medical treatment has become extremely difficult since the government reinforced a ban on unlicensed health workers and clinics earlier this month in the wake of a mass HIV infection last year. ...
Preach Chev
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/treatment-03242015170703.html
Fears abound in HIV village
Three months after their community was shaken by a mass outbreak of HIV, support continues to pour in for residents of Battambang province’s Roka commune. But amid fears generated by the death of several elderly residents and the belief the funding could soon dry up, they ...
May Titthara and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/fears-abound-hiv-village
Lawmaker requests funds to help pay HIV villagers’ debt
The head of the National Assembly’s commission on public health submitted a letter to the Assembly’s president on Thursday requesting that the government find funds to help HIV-positive villagers in Battambang province’s Roka commune pay back the debts they have incurred due to the virus. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawmaker-requests-funds-to-help-pay-hiv-villagers-debt-79828/
Hun Sen acknowledges misstep over HIV outbreak
Prime Minister Hun Sen admitted Tuesday that he made an error in judgment when he doubted the veracity of a growing HIV outbreak in Battambang province’s Roka commune in December. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-acknowledges-misstep-over-hiv-outbreak-79466/
Monks bless elderly sick in fearful HIV commune
Several elderly HIV-positive villagers in Battambang’s Roka commune are seriously ill, local authorities have said, with some of their families having called monks to bless them as they believe death may be imminent. Five people living in the commune have died since a massive HIV outbreak ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/monks-bless-elderly-sick-fearful-hiv-commune
One-use syringe eyed
Amid an ongoing investigation into the massive HIV outbreak in Battambang’s Roka commune, health officials yesterday said that they are requesting that auto-disabled syringes be exclusively used for administering injections in Cambodia. ...
Sarah Taguiam
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/one-use-syringe-eyed
Elderly deaths in ‘HIV village’
The death toll is increasing in Battambang’s Roka commune, which has been plagued by a massive HIV outbreak, as health officials confirmed yesterday that two more HIV-positive villagers succumbed to illnesses despite undergoing antiretroviral treatment (ART). The two elderly women, aged 74 and 75, died on ...
Sarah Taguiam
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/elderly-deaths-hiv-village
Unlicensed doctors ordered to cease operations in Battambang
Battambang provincial authorities have ordered nine unlicensed doctors to shut down their home-care practices in the province, including six in Sangke district’s Roka commune, where more than 230 residents have tested positive for HIV over the past three months. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unlicensed-doctors-ordered-to-cease-operations-in-battambang-78008/
HIV patients in Cambodia’s Roka commune suffer thefts, fault police inaction
Villagers in remote western Cambodia who were infected with HIV/AIDS by an unauthorized medical worker have been hit by a wave of thefts of cows and other property, and some local residents say they police have been indifferent to their plight. ...
Hum Chamrouen
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/thieves-steal-from-HIV-victims-02042015155855.html
Infant becomes latest person to die in Cambodia’s mass HIV infection
A seven-month-old girl is the latest victim of Cambodia’s mass HIV infections in a remote western commune where an unauthorized medical worker reused syringes. The infant was the first to die of 16 members from an extended family of 50 who contracted the deadly virus that ...
Hum Chamroeun
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/baby-dies-of-hiv-01302015171651.html
Promises made to HIV village
Health Minister Mam Bunheng announced yesterday he has proposed that a reserve budget be used to help victims of the mass HIV outbreak in Battambang province’s Roka village, as he vowed to strengthen health services across the country. Speaking at a press conference following questioning by ...
Taing Vida
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/promises-made-hiv-village