Cambodian court has convicted an unlicensed
medical practitioner of murder and sentenced him to 25 years in prison for
spreading HIV among almost 300 villagers.
Yem Chrin, 57, was arrested in December 2014
after a routine health check revealed unusually high numbers of HIV-positive
villagers in Battambang province’s Roka commune in western Cambodia.
On Thursday, he was found guilty of torture with
aggravating circumstances, operating a clinic without a licence, and
intentionally spreading HIV, said Toch Sopheakdey, a spokesman for the
Battambang Provincial Court of First Instance. Besides a 25-year sentence,
Chrin also faces a five-million-riel fine (1,235 dollars).
“This sends a clear message to the other doctors
nationwide who are providing medical treatment without a licence to be aware,”
Sopheakdey told newsmen. An investigation by UNAIDS, the World Health
Organization and local authorities traced the outbreak to Chrin and his reuse
of tainted needles.
In Cambodia, it is common for medication to be
administered by injection, which is perceived as more effective than oral
medication, according to UNAIDS country coordinator Marie-Odile Emond. At
least 10 villagers in Roka commune have died from complications related to HIV,
primarily the elderly and very young children.
Anti-retroviral drugs have been provided to the
villagers, and the government plans to build a referral hospital in
2016. Cambodia has slowed HIV transmission since its peak in the late
1990s. There are 75,000 people living with HIV in a population of 15
million, according to UNAIDS 2014 data, and it remains primarily a heterosexual
disease spread through the sex trade.
The case of Roka village had also drawn attention
to the fact that many rural communities are regularly treated by unlicensed
medics like Chrin as the country has one of the worst shortages of doctors in
Asia. According to the CIA World Factbook, Cambodia had only 0.17 trained
physicians per 1,000 people in 2012, a lower rate than Myanmar, Laos and
Afghanistan. In September, the Ministry of Health estimated about 4,000
unlicensed clinics operate in Cambodia
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