Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 13, 2001
Anjira Assavanonda
Too many doctors were denying infected people a right to equal treatment. Some routinely demanded blood tests as a precaution to themselves and if the results showed the patient was infected, treatment would be denied, delegates to the eighth national Aids conference were told.
Instructors at medical schools should tell students the right way to carry on, or the problem would persist, delegates said.
Wat, 33, said he could be dead today after a doctor refused to give him heart surgery. In July 1998, Wat was admitted to a public hospital where the doctor told him to prepare for an operation.
After results of his blood test came in, the doctor told him that he had contracted HIV and the surgery could no longer be done.
He was eventually treated at Ratchavithi Hospital, after seeking help from the Access Aids Foundation.
"Had I not found this doctor, I wouldn't be talking to you today," said Wat.
Lamai, 55, is another HIV positive patient who suffered from a tumour.
She required an urgent operation but after test results revealed that she had contracted HIV, doctors at two hospitals denied her surgery.
Despite severe pain in her stomach and vaginal bleeding, one doctor would prescribe only oral medicines.
Finally, she went to a third hospital where a doctor gave her an immediate operation.
Vithoon Ungpraphan, who chairs the Aids rights protection committee, said doctors can usually make an independent decision on how to treat a patient. However, in some cases surgery was unavoidable.
Opas Sinpermsuksakul, director of Vachiraprakarn hospital, said he no longer worried about contracting HIV, and did not demand blood tests unless he had the patient's consent. "The risk of contracting HIV is small," he said.
Suprecha Thanamai, of Ratchavithi hospital, said blood tests should be used for medical purposes only, not to reject patients. Somjit Veerawat, of Taksin hospital, said blood tests could help patients. A pregnant woman whom tests showed had the disease would be told how to prevent passing it on to her child.
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