92% Cambodians with HIV/AIDS receive treatment

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 26 (Chinese media) -- More than 92 percent

of the Cambodians living with HIV/AIDS have been provided with anti-retroviral

(ARV) treatment in 2008, a 7 percent rise over 2007, national media said on

Monday.

With this, Cambodia is coming closer to its objective

of making ARV drugs available to nearly all who need them by 2010, Mean ChhiVun,

director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STDs, was quoted

by English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodia Daily as saying.

"We now cover 92 percent. Our target is 97 percent in

2010. The universal access target is about 85 percent, but for Cambodia, we want

to provide anti-retroviral treatment for all," he said.

The treatment was given free of charge last year to

31,989 patients, including 3,067 children, in 77 government-run health centers

and partner organizations in Cambodia, he added.

According to official figures, around 100,000

Cambodians have died of HIV/AIDS since 1991 and some 120,000 now live with the

disease.

The kingdom has brought its prevalence rate down to

below 0.9 percent from the peak of 3.3 percent in 1997.