AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the Royal Government of Cambodia to Partner in New Free AIDS Treatment Clinic in Koh Thum

Formal Ribbon-cutting and Dedication Ceremony Takes Place Saturday, June
2nd in Kandal Province. Facility is Fifth in Partnership Between Royal
Government of Cambodia, the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and
STI Control (NCHADS) and US' Largest AIDS Organization; Others Sites Are In
Kampong Thom, Kampot & Stung Streng Provinces and in Phnom Penh

KANDAL PROVINCE, Cambodia, June 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AIDS
Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest AIDS organization in the United
States, which operates free AIDS treatment clinics in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean, and Asia, and which early last year joined together with
the Ministry of Health, Royal Government of Cambodia and Cambodia's
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STI Control (NCHADS) in a
partnership to provide life-saving anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to people
living with HIV/AIDS in four provinces in Cambodia, announced the opening
of its newest free AIDS treatment clinic in this partnership: a clinic
facility in the Koh Thum District, in Kandal Province, Cambodia. The Koh
Thum ART Treatment Clinic will open with a formal ribbon-cutting and
dedication ceremony at the facility in Kandal Province this Saturday June
2nd.

"We are deeply honored to announce the opening of this newest free
antiretroviral clinic in Cambodia in Koh Thum District in Kandal Province,
one of five AIDS treatment clinics now operating in the country in our
partnership with the Ministry of Health, Royal Government of Cambodia and
the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STI," said Dr. Chinkholal
Thangsing, Asia Pacific Bureau Chief for AIDS Healthcare Foundation. "Over
the next five years, AIDS Healthcare Foundation with NCHADS will expand and
increase our collaborative initiatives to provide technical support and
strengthen the antiretroviral treatment roll out and scale up of ART
delivery services in Cambodia via designated facilities in at least twelve
sites in at least twelve provinces as well as in Phnom Penh. We will also
work closely together to support the Royal Government of Cambodia's overall
HIV/AIDS ART treatment initiatives. It is our sincere hope that this
collaboration between AHF and NCHADS will improve access to HIV/AIDS care
and treatment throughout Cambodia."

At a previous clinic dedication ceremony in the partnership, in Kampot
when the Kampot ART Treatment Clinic opened with a formal dedication
ceremony attended by over 200 people in late September, Dr. Mean Chhi Vun,
Director NCHADS, and Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Royal Government of
Cambodia, said, "NCHADS is very grateful and highly appreciates AIDS
Healthcare Foundation's commitment to support ART clinics and save more
lives of people living with HIV/AIDS in Cambodia. We highly treasure our
relationship with AHF."

"The antiretroviral treatment clinic in Koh Thum being dedicated
Saturday in this partnership was first established in November 2005 by
NCHADS, and is located in the compound of the Koh Thum Referral Hospital,
Koh Thum Operational District in Kandal Province," said Dr. Chhim Sarath,
AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Country Program Manager for Cambodia. "The ART
clinic is operating in a new building provided by NCHADS, and since
November 2005 until now, 172 people living with HIV/AIDS have registered at
the clinic. Among them, 84 have already started on antiretroviral
treatment, and we are both honored and humbled to partner with NCHADS and
the Ministry of Health, Royal Government of Cambodia to help bring ART to
many more Cambodians who may be in need of access to such lifesaving care
and treatment."

The partnerships were first formalized in March 2006 in a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) between AHF and the Cambodian Ministry of Health, and
in a letter of agreement (LOA) with AHF, the Ministry of Health, and the
National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STI Control. Through these
partnerships, AHF, the Cambodian Ministry of Health and NCHADS plan to work
together on ART scale up in several Cambodian Provinces -- now including
Kandal Province -- with the goal of bringing 3,000 people living with
HIV/AIDS in Cambodia into treatment over the next five years. In
mid-January of this year, a new clinic in the partnership was also opened
and dedicated in Stung Streng Province.

One key aspect contributing to the success of AHF's work with its
partners in Cambodia includes the linkage of clinic services provided
together with other community and home-based services. In addition, the
Cambodian partnership focuses on integrating the delivery of services under
a Continuum of Care (CoC) approach, an approach that recognizes the
complexities surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic in order to improve
prevention efforts and optimize use of the oftentimes limited resources
available in the successful care and treatment of those living with the
disease.

Background on Kandal Province

Kandal Province, one of 20 provinces in Cambodia, is a relatively high
prevalence area for HIV/AIDS. It is located in the southern part of
Cambodia, and its capital provincial town is Ta Khmau. The Province
completely surrounds, but does not include, the national capital, Phnom
Penh, which is its own separate municipality. In Kandal Province, Koh Thum
serves as one of the Operational Health Districts (OD). Ta Khmau, the
provincial town, is located just 11 kms from Phnom Penh, and the population
of the surrounding area is around 1,224,433. The Province consists of eight
Operational Districts, with each Operational District containing one
Referral Hospital and number of individual Health Centers. Koh Thum is in
the southern part of Kandal Province (about 70km from the provincial town,
Ta Khmau) on the border with the country of Viet Nam.

The objectives of this latest collaboration in Kandal is similar to the
partnerships' other projects in Kampong Thom, Kampot and Stung Streng
Provinces as well as in the capital of Phnom Penh, and are as enumerated as
below:
* Capacity and skill building of the doctors and healthcare providers at
the Kandal Referral Hospital in collaboration with NCHADS.

* Establishment of an ART Clinic at the Kandal Hospital and provision of
free ART to PLHAs -- including treatment of both adults and children.

The initial collaboration between AHF and these respected Cambodian
institutions first began and were celebrated in March and April 2006 with
formal ribbon-cutting ceremonies at the first two other free AIDS treatment
facilities (Kampong Thom Province and Phnom Penh). The Phnom Penh facility
is located at the Preah Ket Mealea Hospital, and that collaboration was
also formalized in a separate MOU between AHF and the Preah Ket Mealea
Hospital of the Royal Government of Cambodia. The goal of that facility is
to bring medical care and ART to an additional 300 Cambodians.

The first case of HIV infection in Cambodia was reported in 1991 and
was followed by a rapid rise in its transmission. Cambodia's national
HIV/AIDS prevalence rate -- around 3% in 1997 but decreasing to 1.9% in
2003 -- is still understood to be one of the highest in Southeast Asia.
According to a recent AFP/France 24 News Report (as cited on Kaiser Family
Foundation's Daily HIV/AIDS Report), "Almost 10,000 Cambodians die of
AIDS-related illnesses annually, according to government statistics. About
1.9% of Cambodia's 13.8 million people are HIV-positive."

"This growing collaboration between AHF and our esteemed Cambodian
partners includes the delivery of innovative medical and non-medical
interventions; providing technical support and training resources to
increase and strengthen the diagnostic and treatment capacity and skills of
HIV/AIDS and ART treatment services providers in Cambodia -- all of which
will now also take place in Kandal Province," said Henry E. Chang, AHF's
Chief of Global Affairs. "AHF has significant expertise and experience in
ART service delivery and skills and capacity building related to HIV/AIDS
treatment and care, and we are therefore well-positioned to complement the
Cambodian Ministry of Health in its efforts to enhance access to
prevention, treatment and care at these facilities in Cambodia."

"The Royal Government of Cambodia has undertaken significant efforts to
treat its people living with HIV/AIDS and to try to arrest and eliminate
the epidemic, and we salute them for a pragmatic and visionary approach to
fighting the disease," said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare
Foundation. "This partnership brings together many respected stakeholders
with expertise and clinical, public health and management skills that are
essential for any successful HIV treatment program, and it is a privilege
for AIDS Healthcare Foundation to partner with the Ministry of Health,
Royal Government of Cambodia and NCHADS to support the scale up of HIV/AIDS
treatment in Cambodia through this initiative."