Unlicensed Medical Doctor In Court For Infecting More Than 100 With HIV

An unlicensed medical practitioner who infected more than 100 villagers in northwestern Cambodia with HIV by reusing unclean needles went on trial Tuesday, facing three charges including murder, his lawyer said.

Yem Chhrin faces up to life in prison if found guilty of murder, intentionally

spreading HIV — the virus that causes AIDS — and practicing medicine without a licence, his lawyer, Em Sovann, disclosed to CCTV News by telephone.

Yem Chhrin's trial in a provincial court in Battambang town will last five days. He was arrested last December and taken into protective custody, fearing revenge lynching by residents of Roka village, where at least 106 of the 800 people tested were found to be infected with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. Those infected range in age from 3 to 82, and include Buddhist monks.

Of those infected, at least 10 are reported to have died. Local newspapers have put the number of infected at 300.

Cambodia, one of the poorest countries in the world, has inadequate health care facilities, especially in rural areas, where villagers often have no recourse but to depend on unlicensed medical practitioners who have trained themselves to treat minor ailments and to give injections and Yem Chhrin, 53, was one such practitioners.