ROKA, Cambodia — Frail and depressed after her diagnosis, Chem Mao decided to take her life by climbing a mango tree in her backyard, fastening one end of a rope around a sturdy branch and the other around her neck, and jumping. As she shuffled weakly beside her cinder-block house toward her family’s small orchard she saw her grandchildren playing nearby and relented, collapsing into tears.
柬埔寨罗卡——在获得诊断结果之后,姜茂(Chem Mao)身体虚弱,心灰意冷,决定在自家后院的芒果树上自杀。她打算把绳子的一端系在一根牢固的树叉上,另一端绕在自己脖子上,然后纵身跳下。姜茂拖着虚弱的身子,经过自家的煤渣砖房,前往后院的小果园。看到孙辈在附近玩耍,她心软了,不禁哭了起来。
“I didn’t have enough strength to get up the tree,” she said. “Maybe I’ll try again another time.”
“我没有那么大的力气爬上树,”她说。“也许我改天会再试一次。”
Ms. Mao, 55, is among more than 200 villagers in this rice farming community in western Cambodia who tested positive for H.I.V. last month. The Cambodian authorities say that an unlicensed doctor who reused syringes and other medical equipment spread the infection.
在柬埔寨西部的这片稻米种植区,有200多名村民在上个月的艾滋病毒(HIV)检测中结果呈阳性,55岁的姜茂就是其中之一。柬埔寨当局表示,这是一名无照医生重复使用注射器等医疗器械所致。
Even in a country inured to hardship and suffering, the infection of such a large number of people within a radius of a few miles was shocking.
不过,在几英里半径的范围内,就有如此多的人感染HIV,即便是在柬埔寨这样多灾多难的国家,也相当令人震惊。
The victims are everywhere — in the wooden stilt houses, in the paddies harvesting rice, in the gilded Buddhist temple at the entrance to the village, and in the playground of the yellow ocher primary school. The 82-year-old abbot of the temple was infected, as were 12 children who attend the primary school.
到处都是受害者——在木棚屋里,在收割稻谷的田地里,在村口镀金的佛教寺庙里,在小学的黄土操场上。庙里82岁的老住持感染了,小学里的12个孩子也未能幸免。
Grief seems to reach a crescendo in Roka as a visitor walks down the main dirt road: Five minutes from the temple is a cluster of houses where 16 members of an extended family were infected.
在罗卡,当你走在主干道的土路上时,悲伤的感觉会步步加深:从寺庙走过五分钟,你会看到一片房子,居住在那里的一个大家族有16名成员感染了HIV。
What the victims appear to have in common is that they were treated by Yem Chrin, a village medical practitioner who was charged last month with aggravated murder, intentionally spreading H.I.V. and practicing without a medical license. He is in prison while awaiting trial in the nearby city of Battambang.
受害者似乎有一个共同点,那就是他们都接受过严漆(YEM Chrin)的治疗。严漆是一名乡村医生,上个月被控重度谋杀、故意传播HIV,以及无照行医。目前他被关押在附近城市马德望的看守所中,等待审判。
The provincial prosecutor, Nuon San, said in an interview that a number of people in the area had died from H.I.V. in the past and that the authorities were investigating whether Mr. Chrin may have been responsible. Officials quoted in the Cambodian news media said Mr. Chrin had admitted reusing needles and syringes.
该省检察长农桑(Nuon San)在采访中表示,这一地区之前已有一些人死于艾滋病,当局正在调查严漆是否应对此负有责任。柬埔寨新闻媒体援引官员的话报道,严漆承认自己重复使用针头和注射器。
For two decades, Mr. Chrin made house calls to sick villagers here, one of seven unlicensed doctors in the community, officials said. He trained and practiced as a nurse in a refugee camp during the convulsive years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, according to his daughter, Chrin Reaksa.
官员们称,在过去二十年里,严漆为这里的村民上门看病,是该地区七名无照医生之一。根据他的女儿漆叻沙(Chrin Reaksa)的描述,红色高棉政权1979年倒台后的那些动荡年头中,他在一所难民营接受了护理培训,并在那里服务。
When he moved to Roka, “more and more people asked him for help, so he started his medical practice,” Ms. Reaksa said in an interview. “The government never expressed any concerns about a license.”
搬到罗卡后,“越来越多的人向他求助,于是他开始独立行医,”漆叻沙在接受采访时说。“政府从来没有提出过行医执照方面存在任何问题。”
Many villagers, even those infected, staunchly defend Mr. Chrin, describing him as a kind man who treated even those who could not pay.
很多村民,甚至包括感染上HIV的一些人,也在很坚定地为严漆辩护。他们说他很善良,就连那些没钱付费的人也会诊治。
“Honestly I don’t think the doctor caused this,” said Chhay Yao, 76, the matriarch of the family in which 16 people were infected. “He was so clean. And he’s not a bad person. If we had money we gave it to him. If not he would always say, pay me later.”
“老实说,我觉得这不是医生造成的,”76岁的蔡尧(Chhay Yao)说。她是16人被感染的那家人的女族长。“他非常讲卫生,不是坏人。如果我们有钱,就给他。如果没有,他总是说以后再给。”
He made house calls, and was happy to oblige villagers who preferred a drip or injection instead of pills.
他上门给村民看病。有些村民更愿意打点滴或者进行肌肉注射,而不是吃药,他也很乐意满足他们的要求。
The villagers’ affection for the doctor does not blunt their pain and bewilderment over the mass infection. Prum Em, Ms. Yao’s 84-year-old husband, stares with blank incomprehension when asked about the infections, which struck across three generations.
村民对严漆的喜爱并没有缓解这次集体感染带给他们的痛苦和困惑。当被问及感染的事情时,蔡尧84岁的丈夫布隆恩(Prum Em)眼神空洞而不解。他家三代人中都有成员感染上HIV。
“I have done only good deeds my whole life,” he said. “It’s inconceivable that the family could have this much bad luck.”
“我平生只做善事,”他说。“这个家的运气这么差,真是不可思议。”
Family members say they are treated with suspicion when they travel outside the village, including one mother who was instructed to wash her hands with antibacterial gel when the clerks in a shop learned she was from Roka.
家里人说,他们到村子外面走动的时候,别人会用怀疑的态度对待他们。比如,当商店店员得知一名妇女来自罗卡村的时候,就要求她用抗菌液洗手。
“People from other villages are not welcoming us anymore,” said Em Soeum, a member of the family. “They discriminate against everyone from the village, including H.I.V.-negative people.”
“其他村子的人不再欢迎我们了,”来自这个家族的恩顺(EM Soeum)说。“他们歧视我们村的所有人,没有HIV的人也不例外。”
The mass infection in Roka comes just as Cambodia has received accolades for its handling of H.I.V. In early December, around the time the infections were discovered, the United Nations praised Cambodia for reducing the number of new H.I.V. infections by 67 percent since 2005. Cambodia has an H.I.V. prevalence rate of around 0.7 percent, a third lower than that of neighboring Thailand, according to United Nations statistics.
罗卡的集体感染事件爆发的时候,正逢柬埔寨因为应对HIV有方获得赞誉之际。去年12月初,联合国还赞扬了柬埔寨,因为该国新的HIV感染人数比2005年减少了67%。罗卡的感染差不多就是那个时候被发现的。联合国的统计数据显示,柬埔寨的HIV感染率大约为0.7%,比邻国泰国低三分之一。
Roka is about five kilometers, or about three miles, from the nearest paved road and a 15-minute drive from Battambang, a hub of commerce in western Cambodia.
罗卡离最近的公路约5公里,距柬埔寨西部商业中心马德望15分钟车程。
Soeun Sophath, the deputy head of the government health clinic in the village, which is staffed with nurses, said the first sign that something was wrong here came in August, when a routine H.I.V. screening of a pregnant woman came back positive. It was the first positive result in the village since the screening program began two years ago, and health workers could not find an explanation for the infection. When another pregnant woman tested positive in November as well as an elderly man and his daughter-in-law, villagers panicked and stormed the health center to be tested. Dozens tested positive.
森索潘(Soeun Sophath)是罗卡村公办卫生所的副主任,这个诊所中配有护士。森索潘表示,情况不妙的第一个迹象出现在去年8月。当时,他们做常规的孕妇HIV筛查,发现有一例结果呈阳性。自从两年前开始筛查以来,这是该村的首例阳性结果,医护人员却找不到感染的原因。11月时,又一名孕妇HIV检测呈阳性,一个老人和他的儿媳妇也是如此,这下村民们慌了,纷纷赶到这家医疗中心进行检测。结果数十人呈阳性。
“They were crying and crawling on the ground and hugging each other,” Ms. Sophath said. “I was crying, too. I was shocked.”
“他们哭着,在地上爬着,拥抱彼此,”森索潘说。“我也哭了。我很震惊。”
Prime Minister Hun Sen initially expressed disbelief that the tests were correct. “Right now, 99 percent, I don’t believe it’s AIDS,” he was quoted as saying in the Cambodian news media.
首相洪森(Hun Sen)最初表示不敢相信测试结果是正确的。“眼下,我99%不相信是艾滋病,”柬埔寨新闻媒体援引他的话报道。
A few days later, as the police and medical investigation and treatment teams sent from Phnom Penh blanketed the community, a court in Battambang charged Mr. Chrin.
然而几天后,金边派出的警察和医疗调查处理人员遍及整座村庄,马德望的一家法院也对严漆提起了指控。
Not everyone in the village is forgiving of Mr. Chrin. Ms. Mao bursts into a tearful rage when asked about him.
村里并不是每个人都原谅了严漆。当问到他时,姜茂气得直掉眼泪。
“I want to chop him to pieces. I want to torture him,” she said. “I want to inject my blood into his family members so they know what it feels like.”
“我想把他砍成碎片。我想狠狠地折磨他,”她说。“我想把自己的血注射到他的家人身上,让他们尝尝这是什么滋味。”
Described by her neighbors as one of the most talented farmers in the village, Ms. Mao has been too weak to work lately. Her cucumber plants, neatly arrayed in rows, are dead. The bitter melons that she planted a few steps from her house have withered on the vine. A row of cornstalks are yellowed and stunted.
姜茂的邻居说她做农活非常能干,在村里数一数二。但她最近身体变得太虚弱。她种的黄瓜苗整齐地排列成一行行,现在却都死了。她种的苦瓜就在距离自家房子几步之遥的地方,已经在藤蔓上枯萎。一排玉米也是茎叶泛黄,发育不良。
Ms. Mao said the H.I.V. medication, which she began taking this month, made her feel nauseated and weak.
姜茂说,这个月开始使用的HIV治疗药物让她感到恶心乏力。
“I’ve always been able to take care of myself,” she said. “No one has ever helped me and I don’t want anyone’s help. I just want to be able to work again.”
“我一向都可以照顾好自己,”她说。“从来不需要人来帮我,我也不想要任何人的帮助。我只是希望能够重新干农活。”