Three international donors have decided to reduce aid for AIDS prevention in Cambodia as the country has reportedly achieved satisfactory progress on the issue, local media said on Thursday.
The Global Fund, the Department for International Development ( DFID), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will cut funds targeted at reducing the transmission of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia as nationwide rates have declined from 3.3 percent in the 1990s to only 0.9 percent in 2005, reported Cambodian-language newspaper the Koh Santepheap.
"The reduction in aid does not mean they have to end HIV/AIDS prevention activities. In fact, it is observed that the Royal Government of Cambodia has enough capacity to carry out on their own the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS in Cambodia," said UNAIDS representative Pasi Rajander during a training course on AIDS prevention and labor law held through Sept. 18-20 at the National Center for Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control.
Meanwhile, Mean Chhi Vun, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD (NCHADS), said that the Ministry of Health will increase the number of voluntary confidential counseling and testing (VCCT) centers to 190 throughout the country by the end of 2007.
"We now have 185 centers and at the end of this year. We will have 190 centers across the countries," said Mean Chhi Vun, adding that in 2006, the country had 150 centers and the centers are vital in the prevention of HIV/AIDS.
In the first two trimesters of this year, more than 70,000 people have had blood tests at VCCT centers and with 5 percent found to have HIV, the director added.
Those who have their blood tested at the centers will receive counseling and advice on how to receive treatment services and not to transmit the virus to others if they have HIV, and how to prevent themselves if they have not carried the virus, reported another Cambodian-language newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey.
Source: Xinhua
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