Cambodia endangered by new, drug-fuelled AIDS epidemic

Oct 13, 2008, 6:08 GMT

   Phnom Penh - Cambodia faces a fresh HIV/AIDS epidemic because of a sharp rise in intravenous drug use driven by an influx of cheap methamphetamines, a senior government official said Monday.

   Lou Ramin, director general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, told a conference that statistics showed overall drug use had decreased but intravenous use was growing and spreading.

   The driving force of the trend was a newfound popularity of ice, a cheap but particularly potent and addictive methamphetamine often sold in crystal form, he said.

   'The face of drug use in Cambodia is changing,' he told officials. 'Even though the use of drugs in Cambodia has decreased overall, it has spread. Before, drug use outside of the capital was rare, but new reports show this is no longer the case.

   'Now we have the rise in the use of ice, which is often injected,' he said. 'This is a very worrying trend, because injection carries an increased risk of HIV/AIDS.'

   Ramin said his authority found that while 14 per cent of intravenous drug users in the capital were HIV-positive in 2006, that figure had risen to 35.1 per cent by 2007 and with the spread of ice, in particular, there was a real fear of a nationwide trend.

   Cambodia has been held up as a model in the fight against HIV/AIDS after managing to reduce its infection rate substantially in recent years.

   However, it still has one of the highest rates in the region, and experts have warned that complacency and changing demographics of those most at risk, ranging from sex workers and soldiers to drug users and others, could easily lead to a fresh explosion of the disease.