Number of Cambodian villagers infected with HIV/AIDS reaches 106

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) -- The number of villagers tested positive for HIV/AIDS in a remote village in the Battambang province of northwestern Cambodia has risen to 106, a local health official said Wednesday.

Hundreds of residents in five villages of Roka commune have flocked to have their blood tested for HIV/AIDS at a health center since Dec. 8 after report of the mass infections broke out, Hei Sik, head of a local HIV/AIDS test program in the commune, said.

"As of Wednesday afternoon, 775 villagers had been tested for the virus and 106 of them were confirmed positive for HIV/AIDS," he told Xinhua, adding that the HIV/AIDS-positive people are aged from 3 years old to 82.

The testing is still going on as more villagers have come for blood test, he said.

He said villagers suspected that the mass infections were caused by a physician, who might have used the same hypodermic needles to inject different patients.

Mean Chhi Vun, director of Cambodia's National Center for HIV/ AIDS, Dermatology and STDs, said Tuesday that in the preliminary conclusion, those people have been infected by contaminated medical tools such as needles.

He said the suspected physician has escaped after news of mass transmission.