In a follow-up to an unusual story in rural western Cambodia where more than 100 people from a remote village of 800 have tested positive for HIV, the story only gets more strange.
According to an Associated Press report Monday, a unlicensed physician(?) has been charged with a multitude of crimes after being arrested for negligently infecting the villagers.
The doctor(?) has been identified as Yem Chhrin. Chhrin admitted to reusing syringes for treatment of patients to police, although he said he had no intention of spreading the lethal virus among the villagers ages 3 to 82.
He has been charged with the following crimes: murder, intentionally spreading HIV and practicing medicine without a license.
From having one of the most serious HIV epidemics in Asia in the mid-1990s, Cambodia has continued to make progress. New HIV infections have dropped by 67%, from 3900 in 2005 to 1300 in 2013. More than two thirds of the 75 000 people living with HIV are accessing antiretroviral therapy, which is the highest percentage of treatment access in the region.
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