Government Renews Commitment to Achieve HIV Treatment Targets

Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen and his spouse Samdech Kittiprittpundit Bun Rany Hun Sen, President of the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), cheered the World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 with renewed commitment to achieve the set targets and called for collective efforts toward the direction.

National and international solidarity with high responsibility is vital to achieve a country and a world free of discrimination and inequalities, AIDS and other pandemics – which is the theme of the World AIDS Day 2021, they wrote in their separate messages released recently.

It is also essential to have a shared global commitment to share new knowledge, skill and experience to more effectively contain the spread of HIV and to renew the attention for affected people to get broader care, treatment and necessary social services, they added.

According to Samdech Techo and Samdech Kittiprittpundit, Cambodia achieved the 90-90-90 HIV treatment targets (meaning 90 percent of all people living with HIV knew their HIV status, 90 percent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection received sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy had viral suppression) in 2017.

Cambodia has managed to secure 83 percent coverage of the HIV care and treatment services and 90 percent prevention of the mother-to-child HIV transmission across the country, they underlined.

Like the other most deprived groups, they continued, those living with HIV from 1,974 households were ensured the entitlement to the benefits of social security scheme such as cash subsidies from June 2020 to July 2021 during the outbreak of COVID-19.

Despite the threat of COVID-19, Cambodia almost achieved the 95-95-95 HIV treatment targets last year and is committed to reach there by 2025.

To attain this, they encouraged continued hard work to identify those living with HIV who have not come for their life-saving treatment and to sustain the treatment among some 12,000 people living with HIV who are receiving the service.

They urged concerned government bodies to allocate sufficient budget and resources and determine plan of actions to support those living HIV as well as the affected people.

Samdech Techo and Samdech Kittiprittpundit also called on the public to continue comprehend new general knowledge to prevent the transmission of the HIV to family, community and the society, and get timely care and treatment services.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press