Cambodia Loses $100 Million Annually Due to AIDS

HIV/AIDS is costing Cambodia's economy some $100 million a year, according to the nation's National AIDS Authority. The NAA study, reported by the Cambodian Press Review, said that because the government lacks adequate funding, many people become impoverished paying for treatment, and many communities suffer economically due to the burden of the disease. Expenses caused by the epidemic include the costs of providing medicine, care and food for patients and of offering assistance for children orphaned by AIDS. NAA Communication Officer Kim San said the disease is increasingly striking housewives; the infection rate for this group has reached 2.2 percent. Experts predict that AIDS, which claimed 90,000 Cambodians between 1991 and 2002, will kill an additional 20,000 persons in the country in the coming five years.

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