Cambodia has achieved a milestone that eluded most of Asia for many years. The country has become the first in the Asia-Pacific region to meet the UN 95-95-95 targets for HIV, metrics for success in identifying, treating and controlling HIV within a country’s population. The achievement was announced jointly by the Cambodian government and the joint United Nations programme on AIDS (UNAIDS).
The 95-95-95 approach means: 95% of PLHIV know their status, 95% of PLHIV who know their status access antiretroviral treatment and 95% of those on treatment are virally suppressed and do not have the virus detectable in blood. This is an achievement that is seldom reached. Cambodia will be the 5th country across the world and the first across Asia and the Pacific to have achieved it.
This achievement did not happen by chance. In 2017, three years before the target date, Cambodia was one of just seven countries globally to reach the initial 90-90-90 benchmarks. This earlier achievement provided a springboard of political will, continued partnership with the United Nations system and strong engagement of key populations most affected by HIV throughout the years. Cambodia expanded HIV testing, including self-testing, increased access to treatment and ensured local community networks remained the cornerstone of HIV responses. New infections have reduced by over 90 percent from the late 1990s. These figures have a human story.
It is one of resilience. In the early stages the country had the high prevalence, the lack of funds, and the human resources were the health workers, the peer educators, and the people living with HIV who took on much of the challenge of reaching the silent and leaving them no longer silent. That community-based approach has proved as relevant ever since. Officials say they had their trust under years of working with key groups. But the achievement is not an end in itself. Further infections still happen.
In the last reporting year available, Cambodia had nearly 1,000 new reported infections, the vast majority within the core population and their partners. AIDS-related mortality, although reduced greatly, still exists. Senior Minister Ieng Mouly, Chair of the National AIDS Authority, was candid in his thoughts on ownership that accompanies success; “The inevitable next challenge, ” he said”is for us to ensure that progress is sustained through increased ownership domestically as external assistance is ever more under pressure in many regions of the world.
” Unable to rely solely on global funding, it is leaders like those in Cambodia that the United Nations agencies look to as evidence that one can still combat HIV when resources are tight.Regional Director, Eamonn Murphy, sees Cambodia’s success as one that occurred by putting people at the centre, blending political drive, effective service provision and communities, on the ground.Staring down the barrel of a funding crisis, some so called ‘more advanced’ nations have seen increasing numbers of infections, and nations like Cambodia are a beacon of hope in what can be achieved.
