International Activity Report 2004
Cambodia

International staff: 20
National Staff: 145

Expanding care for AIDS and malaria patients

Cambodia has the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Southeast Asia, standing at 2.6 percent of the population. In a number of projects around the country, MSF promotes prevention and offers many facets of care, including treatment with life-extending antiretroviral (ARV) medicines. By July 2004, MSF was giving ARVs to 1,428 adults and 56 children at Phnom Penh's Norodom Sihanouk Hospital, and to 303 adults and 19 children at the hospital in Kompong Cham. In the Takeo and Siem Reap provinces as well as Sotnikum district, MSF treats those needing ARVs at Chronic Disease Clinics (CDCs). MSF's CDC in Takeo Provincial Hospital treats some 900 people with chronic diseases, mostly HIV/AIDS, diabetes and hypertension. By June 2004, 276 of these people were receiving ARVs and MSF expects to have enrolled 600 patients in its ARV program there by the end of 2004. At a CDC in Siem Reap Provincial Hospital, where MSF runs an ARV treatment and counseling program, as of June 2004, 384 patients were taking ARVs. MSF plans to increase this number to 700 by the end of 2004. In addition to treating HIV/AIDS, the Siem Reap CDC staff treat other chronic diseases. At the Sotnikum CDC located in a poor, rural area in the northwest of the country, 104 patients were receiving ARVs and counseling by June 2004. This number is expected to increase to almost 200 by the end of the year.

Although malaria prevalence has decreased in the last few years, it remains a serious health concern in Cambodia due to growing resistance to available treatment. In the town of Pailin, located near the Thai border, MSF is providing early diagnosis and treatment of malaria. MSF is seeking to prove that artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) can be effective in treating patients in remote areas like this one. The project uses this new combination therapy as first-line treatment and monitors its effectiveness.

MSF has worked in Cambodia since 1989.