PHNOM PENH, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia has achieved remarkable success in combating HIV/AIDS in the last decade, a senior health official said Monday.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

In a presentation during the Health Ministry's annual congress, Ly Penhsun, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and Social Transmitted Diseases Control, said about 538 people became newly infected with HIV in 2017, sharply down from estimated 2,562 in 2008.

"The prevalence rate of HIV infections had decreased to 0.6 percent in 2017 from 0.9 percent in 2008 and 1.6 percent in 1998," he said.

He said AIDS killed around 2,227 people last year, down from 3,806 a decade ago.

According to Penhsun, as of last year, some 68,678 people are living with HIV/AIDS, and 85 percent of them have received antiretroviral drugs.

In Cambodia, the first HIV infections were detected and diagnosed in 1991 and the first AIDS case was found in 1993.