Rash of HIV cases hit village in Cambodia's Kandal province

Cambodian health authorities are investigating a concentrated cluster of HIV cases, confirming 14 people from Peam village in southern Kandal province's Muk Kampoul district have tested positive for the disease in the first two months of 2016, a local newspaper reported on Saturday.

"(Fourteen) people from Peam village came to Samdech Euv Hospital in Phnom Penh and found that they were infected with HIV," Ly Penh Sun, director of the National Center for HIV, AIDS, Dermatology and STDs (NCHADS), was quoted as saying by the Phnom Penh Post.

"We are aware of these cases and are investigating the issue."

Serong Kea, a doctor and national program officer for HIV/AIDs with the World Health Organization, said that the agency had been consulting with health authorities about Peam village since the first cases emerged in January, though warned against calling it an outbreak.

"We are still investigating, it is not yet sure, maybe they are old cases, people who came to do HIV tests, but NCHADS will take the next step this is not yet like Roka," Kea said, referring to a mass outbreak in northwestern Battambang town's Roka commune, discovered just over a year ago, where almost 300 people were infected by an unlicensed doctor's use of tainted syringes. Enditem