Cambodia wins award from United Nations for cutting HIV/AIDS

Sep 20, 2010, 4:21 GMT

Phnom Penh - The United Nations said Monday that Cambodia had won an award for the government's successes in dealing with HIV/AIDS.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) award follows the drop in the nation's HIV prevalence from an estimated 2 per cent of adults in 1998 to a projected 0.7 per cent this year.

The UN's resident coordinator in Cambodia, Douglas Broderick, attributed success in tackling the disease to strong leadership, sound policies and collaboration between government and its partners.

'The lessons learned here can be applied to accelerating the progress of those goals still facing challenges to ensure their achievement by 2015,' he said referring to other MDGs that remain off-target such as the number of women dying in childbirth.

In the past decade Cambodia introduced its 100-per-cent Condom Use policy, one of a range of measures that has helped to halve HIV prevalence among pregnant women.

Another measure has tripled the number of HIV-positive women who receive drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. In 2007, just 11 per cent received medication. Last year, one-third did.

The UN added that more than 90 per cent of people needing antiretroviral therapy now get the drugs they need.

But UNAIDS country director Tony Lisle warned HIV was not yet beaten, and pointed out that injecting drug users remain a high-risk group.

'HIV is still a very real challenge in this country, and stigma and discrimination remain high, which creates a barrier to accessing services,' Lisle said.

His comments echoed worries expressed by AIDS campaigners who have long condemned provisions in the 2008 anti-trafficking law that outlaw prostitution.

Police have arrested numerous sex workers and driven many underground in the past two years, which has made it harder for health workers to reach them.

Organizations providing health services for sex workers have long expressed concern that their staff risk being arrested for providing sex workers with condoms and sexual health information.

The UN acknowledged that in its statement announcing the award, saying 'changes in the legal and policy environment' had hampered efforts to help those most at risk.