BANGKOK, Dec 1, 2006 (AFP) - Thai activists created a carnival of condoms in a downtown Bangkok park Friday to mark World AIDS Day, hoping to reignite Thailand's celebrated prevention programs that some fear have begun to lag.
Some 500 students and activists marched through downtown Bangkok to mark the day, while others set up the festival that was expected run late in the night.
The marchers were joined by representatives of Thailand's Government Pharmaceutical Organisation, one day after the health ministry announced that it would break the patent on pharmaceutical giant Merck's high-priced HIV/AIDS drug Efavirenz.
The government said the decision would immediately allow access to the live-saving drug at a lower price.
Thailand has made enormous strides in providing treatment to people with AIDS, with a program the World Bank has hailed as "a useful beacon for other developing countries".
Thailand's treatment program has been widely credited with slashing the number of deaths from AIDS by about 75 percent last year and the number of new annual HIV infections continues to drop.
But experts fear that Thailand's success in treating the disease may have led to complacency in prevention efforts, which appear to being failing to reach younger Thais.
The health ministry announced Thursday that 40 percent of the some 15,000 new HIV infections this year were among teenagers who caught the disease by having sex.
Married women have also seen a spike in new infections, highlighting how the disease has spread beyond the people previously seen most at risk.
The festivities in Lumpini Park were designed to appeal to younger people -- with dart throwing to pop condom balloons, races to blow up condoms, and demonstrations with mannequins of how to use a female condom.
"It's very important for us to keep away HIV. It's really important to my future, I don't want to risk my life," said Vittaya Boonloh, an 18-year-old student at Assumption Commercial College.
Suthida Vanchaijiraboon, a 17-year-old student at Saint Michael's high school, said their sex education classes at school aren't always effective in explaining about preventing HIV.
At the festival, she said, "I learned how to use a condom to save me from AIDS.
"It's very important because some teenagers don't know how to use condoms. Some teenagers don't talk with their families about sex. In Thailand it is very difficult to talk about sex," she said.
The festival was set to run late into the evening, with concerts and a condom fashion show, where designers were to showcase clothing made from condoms.
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