PHNOM PENH: The Vice President of the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), Khuon Sodary, met with the Country Director of UNAIDS, Patricia Ongpin, at the CRC Headquarters on Monday morning, 27 February 2023, where they discussed a number of issues, including the discrimination faced by people living with HIV.

Currently, about 2% of people living with HIV in Cambodia have reported facing discrimination, with people who are HIV-positive often discriminating against themselves.

The CRC Vice President and UNAIDS Country Director also discussed four main risks that people living with HIV face: the fact that some living with HIV are refusing to take antiretroviral drugs, the growing number of people living with HIV in Cambodia, mother-to-child transmission of HIV and the Covid-19 crisis.

"Therefore, the joint thinking between the Cambodian Red Cross, the national champions working group, and UNAIDS is to continue promoting education, outreach and consideration for infants born with HIV, and to have those living with HIV treated with antiretroviral drugs," said the CRC Vice-President.

UNAIDS Country Director, Patricia Ongpin, also remarked that strengthening and expanding education and prevention of HIV/AIDS among high-risk groups, youth and university students is also a main priority task, and she noted that awareness of HIV among young people is declining due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

She further shared her experience working in African countries where the prevalence of HIV is high, and said that many of these countries have adopted new methods and new treatment drugs to prevent the spread of HIV.

She said Cambodia currently administers antiretroviral prophylaxis (ARP) among high-risk target groups, but UNAIDS is currently looking into further studies on the use of injectable treatments. These injections are, however, very costly, so UNAIDS is considering negotiations with manufacturers to produce these injections at a lower cost so that everyone can receive this treatment.

Ongpin stressed that during her current four-year tenure as Country Director of UNAIDS in Cambodia, she hopes UNAIDS and the Cambodian Red Cross will continue to strengthen cooperation and work together to address global issues, including the prevention of HIV/AIDS and Covid-19.