This is the boonies.

Sort of related.

Tonight I went to a St 136 bar with a visiting friend. Anyhow, there was a doctor there taking blood samples from the staff to test for HIV. I was a bit surprised, as I've never actually seen this occur before in the times I've been bar hopping.

I asked someone I know who pays for it, and it was, of course, NGO funded, apparently they come every month. Ah, so no problems? No, everybody okay. Obviously no results would be available, so I assumed she was talking about previous testing. So I said "what if someone not okay?" She didn't seem to hear that question... so I gave up.

Just wondering how frequent this kind of testing is?

Cheers.

Joker Poker wrote:...So I said "what if someone not okay?" She didn't seem to hear that question... so I gave up.

I figure maybe they'll tell her, she'll probably go get some free anti-retrovirals, then she'll go back to work at the bar.

Cheers LTO - I guess that sounds about right. Not likely to spark a career change is it.

Doctor in HIV case gets 25 years

The unlicensed doctor responsible for a mass HIV outbreak in Battambang province that has infected hundreds was this morning found guilty of torture with aggravating circumstances and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

As the judge read the verdict, the defendant, Yem Chroeum, stared at the floor in silence.

The outbreak of the virus in Battambang’s quiet Roka village was first detected last December. Almost 300 people, including children, have now been diagnosed as HIV-positive.

About 30 police were stationed outside the court as Chroeum, who had been working as a doctor in the community for almost two decades, was led in this morning.

Chroeum’s family wept as he was brought into the courtroom in an orange jumpsuit, saying they hoped he would be freed.

He had maintained his innocence since his arrest in August and throughout the trial, beginning in October.

In addition to the jail sentence, the judge also ordered Chroeum to pay those affected by the outbreak – more than 100 – between 2 million and 12 million riel ($500 to $3,000) in compensation, as well as 5 million riel to the state.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/d ... ign=buffer

25 years is almost fitting provided he dies in custody. He has given numerous life sentences so he should receive one.

How the residents of Cambodia’s ‘HIV village’ are coping more than two years on
By: Paul Millar - POSTED ON: March 15, 2017

In 2014, an unlicensed medic infected almost 300 people with HIV in Roka village, and the residents are still picking up the pieces...

http://sea-globe.com/how-the-residents- ... -years-on/

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2017 1:01 pm How the residents of Cambodia’s ‘HIV village’ are coping more than two years on
By: Paul Millar - POSTED ON: March 15, 2017

In 2014, an unlicensed medic infected almost 300 people with HIV in Roka village, and the residents are still picking up the pieces...

http://sea-globe.com/how-the-residents- ... -years-on/

its ok though as a nice bank has supplied them with mfi's no doubt.

one wonders if the patients that react badly to the retrovirals have been offered other alternative drugs.

HIV medicines are grouped into six drug classes according to how they fight HIV. The six drug classes are:
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs)
Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs)
Protease inhibitors (PIs)
Fusion inhibitors
CCR5 antagonists (CCR5s) (also called entry inhibitors)
Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs)
The six drug classes include more than 25 HIV medicines that are approved to treat HIV infection. Some HIV medicines are available in combination (in other words, two or more different HIV medicines are combined in one pill.)

https://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/ju ... erview-old f-hiv-treatment

this is the govs fault for not tackling the unlicensed medics and heath centers properly. they should have given each infected villager at least 100,000 dollars compensation.

Lest we forget. People are still dying as a result of Cambodia's biggest HIV healthcare scandal which was discovered in 2014.

More Roka villagers die of HIV
November 12, 2018
Two victims who contracted HIV while under the care of disgraced doctor Yem Chrin in Battambang province’s Roka commune have died in the last two months due to a lack of funding to support victims.

Nearly 300 residents of two villages in Roka commune tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS from November 2014 until 2016.

An investigation into the outbreak found that unlicensed medical practitioner Mr Chrin, who had been practising medicine in Roka village since the early 1990s, was to blame.

Mr Chrin had reused syringes, needles and other medical equipment that allowed the virus to spread among his patients, an investigation by the Health Ministry and World Health Organisation found.

Loeum Lorm, a volunteer for Buddhism for Development in the commune, said a total of 32 villagers have died, including ten men and 22 women.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50549677/m ... ie-of-hiv/

This article is a good catch-up if you don't know about this case: http://sea-globe.com/how-the-residents- ... -years-on/

UPDATE:
Five years after HIV outbreak in a Cambodian commune, villagers feel forgotten
"No one pays attention. No one thinks about us"
Posted 18 September 2019 2:25 GMT
This edited article by Saut Sok Prathna is from VOD News, an independent news site in Cambodia, and is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.

The house of Yem Chrin, a local medic now serving a 25-year jail sentence, stands abandoned in Roka commune in Cambodia, located in Battambang’s Sangke district.

In 2015, a provincial court found him guilty of providing treatment without a license. Among a host of other charges, Yem Chrin was found to be responsible, ultimately, for spreading the HIV virus among hundreds of villagers in 2014 by reusing dirty syringes.

For a time, the case drew national and international attention as it was gradually discovered that almost 300 villagers — from young children to 80-year-olds, and monks at local pagodas — tested HIV positive.

With the attention came support: Guidance on learning to live with HIV, the upgrading of local roads and clinics, extra programs to help children’s education.

But five years later, life in the commune has become one of mostly silence and early death. Ray*, a 66-year-old woman living with HIV said

No one pays attention. No one thinks about us. I don’t know why they don’t care.

Saloeun, 34, said she and five family members are HIV positive. She was weak and tired on most days and found she had trouble remembering things.

The children and older people in the commune needed more support, she said.

Some children have lost their mothers. They should be given support to continue their studies.

Samoeun’s 13-year-old son lives with HIV. The 34-year-old mother said she felt isolated as the family faced constant discrimination.

I’m so lonely. Don’t they want to recognize me? I don’t want it to be like this.

Local officials, however, said they were doing what they could for the commune. Su Sanith, the deputy director of Battambang’s provincial health department, said the local government paid close attention to Roka’s plight even as international and national aid dropped off.

When the outbreak of this disease happened, there was an increase in both national and international aid for them. But later on, it seems quiet.
https://globalvoices.org/2019/09/18/fiv ... forgotten/