Clinton highlights Cambodia's success in fighting HIV/AIDS

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 4 Kyodo

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Monday that Cambodia's success in fighting HIV/AIDS can be used as a model for Asia and the rest of the world.

''Cambodia can be a model for the rest of Asia and perhaps the rest of the world,'' Clinton said after signing a memorandum of understanding on fighting HIV/AIDS, part of the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative which has been in place in Cambodia since June 2005.

The foundation has formed partnership with UNITAID, a funding mechanism that aims to provide medicine and treatment to over 100,000 children living with HIV/AIDS globally.

In Cambodia, the prevalence of HIV infections and AIDS among people aged 15-49 declined from 3 percent in 1997 to 1.9 percent in 2003, and may further fall to 1.6 percent in 2006, according to Teng Kunthy, secretary general of the country's National AIDS Authority.

Clinton, however, said despite Cambodia's success in fighting HIV over the past year, ''significant challenges'' need to be worked out.

''I am looking forward to working together over the next few years,'' he said, noting that every year about 3 million people around the globe lose their lives because of HIV/AIDS-related diseases, and the lack of medicine and proper treatment.

Cambodian Minister of Health Nuth Sokhom told reporters that during a half-an-hour meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen, Clinton pledged to provide more technical equipment and pediatric care in Cambodia.

The MOU is designed to provide medicine and tests for 3,000 HIV positive children in Cambodia next year.

The foundation also spends about $1 million per year in Cambodia.

Clinton arrived in Cambodia on Sunday night and visited the orphanage center dealing with the HIV/AIDS project in Phnom Penh on Monday, said Alex Hurd, country director of the charitable foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative.

He will move to Siem Reap Province later Monday and visit Angkor Hospital for Children on Tuesday, Hurd said. The former U.S. president will leave for Vietnam on Tuesday night.

The Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative helps governments extend HIV/AIDS care and treatment to their citizens and has negotiated deep reductions in AIDS medicine and diagnostic pricing, Hurd said.

According to government data, as of 2003, 123,000 Cambodians were living with HIV, of which 18,000 had developed AIDS.

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