AEGiS-Bangkok Post: EDITORIAL: Continuing denial helps Aids spread

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

EDITORIAL: Continuing denial helps Aids spread

Bangkok Post - Monday, September 10, 2001

The most dangerous attitude towards serious threats is denial. History is studded with examples ranging back to the Trojan horse and beyond. The epidemic of Aids has been made worse by initial denial. We in Thailand have learnt our lesson the hard way. Aids invaded and began to ravage the country as officials and citizens insisted it could not, and would not, affect Thailand. By admitting and confronting the problem, this country has begun to beat back Aids. Some of our neighbours are still in denial, and that will result in thousands of unnecessary deaths.

When Aids invaded Thailand more than a decade ago, the authorities were far too slow off the mark. Since then, Thailand has earned international praise for confronting HIV/Aids forthrightly. Education reaches deep inside society, through schools, clinics and the media. Thailand is one of the few nations where the rate of Aids infection is declining. Another is Cambodia, which went through the same, shameful cycle of denial before honest confrontation and education.

Last week, Cambodia invited regional nations to a conference in Phnom Penh. The aim was to face the Aids problem squarely. That problem, today more than ever, involves the spread of Aids across borders. Three lamentably sceptical countries showed up at the Phnom Penh meeting. One, to its shame, stayed away entirely.

First, those with somewhat open minds: Vietnam and Laos. Aids has started taking hold in those countries, crossing their borders from China and Cambodia. Officials in Hanoi and Vientiane pleaded they have little money to institute the sort of Aids education that is needed. That must be unacceptable to their people. If Cambodia can afford to mount a largely successful Aids programme, so can they.

Until a few months ago, Beijing claimed that Aids resulted from capitalist decadence and, therefore, could not touch Chinese. The arrogance of that uninformed denial will cost tens of thousands of Chinese citizens their lives. While the Chinese government has fiddled, HIV/Aids has burnt its way into the heartland of the nation. Government blood collections have poisoned up to 65% of people in Henan villages. Safe sex is almost unknown in China, resulting in the infection of an estimated 50% of prostitutes and drug users in Yunnan.

This is the tip of the iceberg. The UN Aids agency believes a million Chinese are infected. But Beijing has begun to show some shame for pride and conceit. China has asked the US Centres for Disease Control for help. Like Vietnam and Laos, China promised the Phnom Penh conference to help to fight the cross-border spread of the disease.

Not Burma. While all this was taking place, Health Minister Maj-Gen Ket Sein told a horrified World Health Organisation meeting that Aids is no problem in Burma. He blamed anti-Rangoon media for claiming Burma has an Aids problem. That was a curious sort of deception. The UN's WHO officially estimates there are a minimum of 530,000 infected Burmese, out of a population of 48 million. That puts Burma's HIV/Aids problem at the same level as Thailand, except that the infection rate is increasing, not declining.

Maj-Gen Ket Sein told the WHO that Burma has a comprehensive programme to prevent and control HIV/Aids. If so, it is still a state secret. Burma claims there is no Aids problem because Burmese do not misbehave sexually to spread Aids. The sale of condoms is illegal.

That makes Burma a health threat to the region. Its state-supported drugs trade has already been recognised as a major vector for the spread of Aids among addicts, their sex partners, and their partners. Of course, Burma also denies there is a major drugs threat in the region emanating from its northern area. That is also false.
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