Survey Launched to Find Source Of HIV’s Spread in Battambang

A government-led team tasked with identifying the source of an outbreak of HIV in Battambang province’s Roka commune began a survey of residents Tuesday in an attempt to determine how the virus spread, an official said.

More than 100 people, including young children, elderly residents and two monks, had tested positive for the virus at the commune health center in Sangke district as of Thursday. By Friday, at least 90 of those had their cases confirmed by the Pasteur Institute in Phnom Penh. Government health officials contacted this week have refused to provide updated figures.

The Battambang Provincial Court on Monday charged Yem Chrin, a local unlicensed doctor whom villagers blame for the outbreak, with murder accompanied by torture, cruelty or rape.

On Tuesday, Masami Fujita, the World Health Organization’s HIV team leader in Cambodia, said a survey of factors that may have helped the virus spread was under way.

“The data collection started today,” Mr. Fujita said. “We are hoping to have the study completed in a few days.

“We are exploring all the possible risk factors that may have contributed to the cluster of HIV cases here,” he said, adding that the survey was focusing on three ways the virus may have been transmitted: sexually, through blood and from mother to child.

Mr. Fujita said that depending on the results of the survey, the team investigating the outbreak—led by the Health Ministry’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD (NCHADS) and including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNAIDS and Unicef—may have to conduct a follow-up study.

“Depending on the results, we may have a conclusion, or just narrow down questions for another survey,” he said.

Since preliminary testing for HIV began on December 8, residents of Roka commune have been told they must go to the provincial referral hospital to receive antiretroviral (ARV) drugs used to suppress the virus.

Local NGO Buddhism for Development (BFD) has been paying for infected villagers to travel to the provincial hospital. But the organization’s funding is set to run out at the end of the month, said Oum Sopheap, executive director of Khana, which supports BFD as the country’s largest NGO working to combat HIV and AIDS.

“Technically, they finish their funding in December,” Mr. Sopheap said of the financiers. “But for BFD, we are going to try to help so there is no funding gap.”

Dr. Fujita said another option would be to set up an ARV treatment clinic in Roka commune itself.

“This is one of the options the local authorities are now thinking about,” he said. “But clinics require [a] laboratory and experienced professionals and support groups…. A range of factors have to be considered.”

(Additional reporting by Alex Consiglio)

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