NGO calls to improve living quality of HIV/AIDS patients in Cambodia

Cambodia should strive to improve the living quality of its HIV/AIDS patients rather than just support them to live, the Khmer HIV/AIDS NGO Alliance (KHANA) said on Thursday.

The kingdom is now faced with new and different challenges in its anti-HIV/AIDS campaign, such as moving beyond meeting the basic needs of the patients, KHANA said in a press release issued along the inauguration of the two-day Stakeholder Conference on the HIV/AIDS Response in Cambodia.

Let's "think of living, not only surviving," added KHANA, organizer of the conference and major HIV/AIDS fighter in the kingdom since 1997.

Cambodia also needs to assure that the aid programs are well governed and accountable, and that the people of Cambodia have access to a range of opportunities to ensure their health and well- being, said the press release.

Meanwhile, a report issued by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) at the conference confirmed that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is no longer growing rapidly in Cambodia , which means that the kingdom has "turned the tide" in the period from 1991 to 2005.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate among the Cambodian adults has dropped to the current 1.9 percent from three percent in 1997 and the people living with HIV/AIDS also decreased from 179,000 in 1998 to the current 135,100, including 123,100 adults and 12,000 children, it said.
According to government statistics, HIV/AIDS has killed about 100,000 Cambodians so far.

Source: Xinhua