Pediatric HIV/AIDS Care in Phnom Penh:
In August 2009, Cambodian Health Committee opened the Joseph P. Sullivan Outpatient Clinic for HIV Care of Children and the newly renovated Pediatric Ward at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital (KSFH) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s largest public hospital.
Impact:
1.Outpatient HIV care and treatment has been provided to +600 children at the Sullivan HIV Pediatric HIV Clinic with a special focus on children with HIV and TB with outstanding success of treatment measured in HIV viral load suppression and adherence with medicines.
2. 85,000+ outpatient visits for HIV care for children living with HIV/AIDS were conducted at the Sullivan Center between 2009-2020. Outstanding success of treatment was measured in HIV viral load suppression and adherence with medicines.
3. 400+ HIV-positive children /year under the age of 18 received their routine and ongoing primary HIV care and medicines at the Sullivan Center per year between 2009-2020. Outstanding success of treatment and adherence to the daily treatment was measured in HIV viral load suppression and increase in CD4+ T cell counts.
Dr. Vophorn, the lead CHC physician at the Sullivan HIV pediatric Clinic with a new patient.
4. A linkage between CHC’s Sullivan Pediatric HIV outpatient Clinic at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital (KSFH) and CHC’s Maddox Chivan Children’s Center (MCCC), brought the medical age-specific counseling to HIV medicines developed at the MCCC, which greatly assisted with good adherence with taking daily HIV treatment. Counselors and social workers from the MCCC assist with medical counseling of children and social problems faced by these children and their families and provide a natural link for children to participate in the MCCC activities.
National physicians working at the Pediatric Ward were trained in HIV treatment and care at the MCCC and so transition of HIV treatment to the new pediatric HIV clinic at the national hospital was seamless and pediatric staff at KFSH worked together with a full time CHC HIV physician at the Sullivan Center.
5. The Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital (KSFH)’s adjoining Pediatric Ward, which had been poorly functional before CHC opened the Sullivan HIV Pediatric Clinic, was renovated at the time that CHC built the adjoining HIV outpatient clinic in 2009. The ward renovation enhanced inpatient services for children living with HIV/AIDS or arriving at the ward for any reason and houses 20 beds and isolation rooms for children with infectious TB. Vaccination activities were instituted and neonatal and intensive care facilities consistent with local standards of care were also updated. Strengthening of the neonatal service on the renovated ward answered an important need of the hospital given that it has a very busy maternity service with +3,000 births/year that serves the poorest patients in the city.
Hospitalization of children living with HIV/AIDS
Waiting to see the doctor and counselor at the Sullivan Clinic
Dr. Isabelle, a French pediatrician who volunteered with Cambodian Health Committee examining a newborn brought from the adjacent Maternity Ward, and mentors the pediatric care team in newborn examinations at the hospital.
An infant with a fever being admitted to the renovated Pediatric Ward at the Khmer Soviet Hospital for antibiotics and fever control.
Jaundiced newborns receiving UV light therapy on the pediatric ward after birth in the maternity ward of the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital.
6. During COVID in 2021, all HIV care at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital for adults and children, including the Sullivan Pediatric HIV Clinic, was merged with the National AIDS Program (NCHADS) Clinic in Phnom Penh, which cares for +3800 persons living with HIV/AIDS. CHC follows these patients in partnership with the Cambodian National AIDS Program (NCHADS) team. As they age out of the pediatric clinic they join the 175 older teenagers and young adults who received HIV care at the Sullivan Pediatric HIV Clinic and now are treated in the adult NCHADS clinic with a focus on their vulnerable (teenage/young adult) phase of life.
7. Thankfully, in 2025, pediatric HIV transmission has been significantly decreased in Cambodia due to screening for HIV before birth and treatment of HIV-infected pregnant mothers-to-be with AIDS drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. It is therefore now rare for young children to present to any health facility with HIV/AIDS. As the 600 children who were treated at the Sullivan Pediatric HIV Clinic have grown into teenagers and young adults, they have joined adult HIV clinics after the age of 15 according to Cambodia Ministry of Health policy. A focus of CHC’s current work is to provide support for adherence of adolescent and young adults to lifelong HIV treatment in the pediatric and adults NCHADS HIV clinic.
Children with parents awaiting follow-up appointments at the Sullivan HIV Clinic for Children in 2020.
This boy and his father meeting with the medical counselor after they visit the doctor to reinforce taking daily HIV medications. She is using the counseling cards developed by Maddox Chivan Children’s Center/Cambodian Health Committee team.
Teens waiting for their appointment with the counselor and the doctor.
In the photo above left, Dr. Sinet, who was the chief of the pediatric ward at the Khmer Soviet Hospita, consults with pediatrician Dr. Ann Kao - - a US pediatrician from Boston who was volunteering with CHC—about the baby Dr. Ann was holding in her arms.
The 12 month old baby was brought to the pediatric ward; she weighed 12 pounds and had severe diarrhea, fever, and malnutrition.
Right top photo: the mother is holding her, accompanied by the baby’s 8 year old sister. Her mother had just learned in the adult HIV Clinic of the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital that she and the father were both HIV positive. The mother was sent to the pediatric ward so her two daughters could be tested for HIV and the baby could be evaluated. The older sister was HIV negative. Unfortunately, the baby, named Sivy, was found to be infected with HIV from maternal-child transmission. She was now suffering with advanced AIDS disease and was hospitalized in very serious condition on the Pediatric Ward to receive fluids and antibiotics for her diarrhea and for therapeutic feeding.
General Pediatrics Hospitalization and Care
A 3 year old boy having a blood test to test his CD4+ T cell count and HIV viral load to evaluate the efficacy of his treatment for HIV and his immune system.
Left: H.E. Mam Bun Heng, the Cambodian Minister of Health awards CHC Executive Director at the time, Dr. Sok Thim, with the Gold Medal for Reconstruction of Cambodia on behalf of Prime Minister Hun Sen on the occasion of the opening of the renovated pediatric ward and the Sullivan Pediatric HIV Clinic in August 2009 (photo below) at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital and celebrating the NGO-Ministry of Health Partnership to treat Pediatric HIV.
Critical support Pediatric Care for Children living with HIV/AIDS and Pediatric Care at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital through the years has been provided by Jeanne Sullivan, Nancy and Steven Crown, Angelina Jolie, Mark Peters, Barbara and Peter Sereda, Cathi and Albro Lundy and others.
