Bangkok-Post - December 1, 2000
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi

A well-established office employee in his twenties, Boy admitted he had many casual sex partners before he was married but insisted he had always practised safe-sex and used a condom.

He regarded his wife as very riab-roy, or decent, and had not believed she slept around before their marriage.

The couple had no problems, until one day his wife fell suddenly ill. Only then did he learn she was HIV-positive.

He had a test, thinking he would also be positive, but to his surprise it came up negative.

Boy is now seriously worried about what he should do-separate with his wife or to continue his life with her by finding an effective method to protect himself. He is just one of the many people who called Access, a non-governmental organisation Aids counselling centre, to seek advice. Boy said he felt very bad because he, like most men, thought it sufficient to protect himself with casual sex partners, but that he needed no protection with a steady girlfriend or wife.

Ann, in her early twenties, called Access for counselling because she tested HIV-positive and believed she had not caught the virus from her boyfriend, who always used a condom when they had sex. A well-to-do woman who planned to further her education abroad, Ann said she once had sex with her former boyfriend in high school.

She waited three months before approaching Access for help, saying she did not want to tell her present boyfriend and planned to break up with him. Ann said she felt very disappointed with herself. As an adult, she now realised she should protect herself while having sex, but the lesson had come too late.

Today is World Aids Day and this year's campaign focuses on men.

But Chiranuch Premchaiporn, of Access, says education to raise awareness about the deadly virus should give equal emphasis to both sexes.

The Aids epidemic involves a whole lot of issues which affect all of society-from the family institution to the national economy, she said.

It would take a very long time to bring about social change. Society should be made to accept the fact that most people have sex before getting married in today's world. "Males and females should be given equal footing where sexual experience is concerned," she said. A women's reputation was generally measured by her behaviour, particularly where sex was concerned.

Boy and girl friends should be more open in their sexual relationships, so they could protect themselves-not only from sexually transmitted diseases but also from unwanted pregnancies. Initially, most people who phoned the centre were women whose husbands or boyfriends were infected.

The situation had since changed. "More and more women phone in each day, most of them HIV-positive," she said. The numbers of married and unmarried callers were about equal.

Senator Jon Ungphakorn, an NGO activist, said he was concerned about the weakening campaign effort on prevention and control of HIV/Aids. He urged authorities to find new approaches to gain the attention of youth.

While campaigns continue to focus on the same risk groups, like sex workers, new cases of HIV infection were increasingly observed among married couples and casual sex partners. As many as 4.05% of all HIV infections were housewives, according to Health Ministry October statistics. The rate of Aids among children below school age was 3.37%. This year alone, 12,839 cases of new HIV infection had been reported, as of October.
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