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PublicationsInternational Activity Report 2007CambodiaMSF in Cambodia, 2007Field Staff: 245 Reason for Intervention:
MSF Activity Reports on Cambodia: Recent update: All articles on Cambodia » Improved health facilities and a government commitment to fight HIV/ AID S has ensured critical progress in the scale-up of antiretroviral treatment (ART) programs in Cambodia. Because of this improved situation MSF has begun handing over some of its HIV/AIDS projects. MSF is currently offering HIV/AIDS care in four locations and has 8,000 patients on ART, 30 percent of all those on treatment nationwide. In its HIV/AIDS programs in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Takeo and Kompong Cham, MSF provides ART including second line treatment for those who do not respond well to standard (first line) treatment. Counseling, treatment of opportunistic infections and information on HIV/AIDS are also provided. A total of 360 patients are on second line treatment. In Phnom Penh, MSF is working in the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital, one of the largest public hospitals in the city. Alongside its HIV/ AIDS care, which began in 1997, MSF has been providing HIV/AIDS care to 42 inmates from three of the city’s main prisons since 2006 and hospital-based and ambulatory medical follow-up for HIV patients co-infected with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). Kompong Cham, west of Phnom Penh, is one of the most populated provinces in Cambodia. MSF has been working here since 2003, offering comprehensive HIV/AIDS care. During 2008, MSF will transfer HIV care to the national program and focus on treating patients co-infected with HIV and TB, including building a new TB ward. Seventy per cent of current HIV patients in the hospital ward in Kompong Cham also suffer from TB. In Takeo, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, MSF increasingly focused on developing treatment for patients affected by TB, including multi-drug resistant TB, independent of their HIV status. In Takeo and Siem Reap, MSF uses an innovative approach, treating HIV/AIDS as a chronic disease alongside diabetes and hypertension, which also have high prevalence rates. By December 2007 over 6,200 patients had been treated for diabetes and hypertension since the beginning of the project in 2002. In Siem Reap, MSF works closely with local non-governmental organizations to increase access to treatment and testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. MSF provides medicines, supports the transport of sex workers to health centers and referrals to appropriate services for specific care such as abortion, post-abortion care and cervical cancer. MSF’s pediatric HIV/AIDS programs throughout the country have seen dramatic improvements in children’s immune system, growth, development and quality of life. Some 890 children were on treatment by the end of 2007. MSF continues to support the local health authorities’ response to seasonal epidemics such as dengue fever. The 2007 dengue outbreak was particularly severe, with 35,000 cases and 190 deaths reported nationwide. MSF provided assistance to Cambodian medical staff in Takeo and Kompong Cham. MSF has worked in Cambodia since 1979. |
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