Khmer Times
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Peam residents gather for blood tests in Muk Kampoul
district of Kandal Province. 14 villagers tested positive for the virus that
causes AIDS earlier this month. KT/Chor Sokunthea
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More than 200 villagers from Peam village, young and old, came to the village chief’s house yesterday to do blood tests for HIV. Four tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, but uncertainty remains about the total number of villagers with the disease.
The mass HIV test by the Ministry of Health was requested by local authorities after a blood test on February 6 by officials from Samdech Ouv Hospital found that 14 of the villagers were carrying HIV. Some of the people who have tested positive in yesterday’s tests recounted feelings of shame and fear, and said they were worried about being shunned by their neighbors because of a disease that is often stigmatized and little-understood.
Ms. Chenda, a 65-year-old woman living in the village, said she was hiding in her house to avoid contact with villagers and to conceal the fact that she has tested positive for HIV.
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