Currently in Cambodia, about 170,000 people are believed to be infected, or nearly 3 percent of the adult population. Cambodia, the experts say, is now at a critical moment when it is still possible to hold back full-scale disaster. UN officials are finding signs that awareness of the disease and its modes of transmission is increasing, along with increased use of condoms. And the infection rate among young sex workers appears to be dropping. Still, the country is under-developed, poorly educated, and boasts a thriving sex industry.
Some men visit prostitutes before going home to their wives, whom they often infect.
Casual sex among young people, too, appears to be rising. There also exists a stigma that causes many sufferers to be abandoned by their families and shunned by their neighbors, she said. A two-day AIDS workshop opened Tuesday in Cambodia. The meeting, part of an effort to control the spread of HIV, attracted about 100 people from international agencies and government and nongovermental organization in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and China. Cambodian officials said the country has the highest rate of HIV infection in Asia, with 100 new cases of HIV and 20 AIDS-related deaths each day.