Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - October 29, 2001
Anjira Assavanonda
HIV-testing without the consent of the individual is a violation of human rights, Senator Jon Ungpakorn told a forum on the ethics and prevention of HIV/Aids.
The role of non-governmental organisations and the network of people living with HIV/Aids in campaigning against compulsory HIV-testing was not enough in itself, he said.
The campaign should be strengthened in both the government and private sectors to change their attitudes towards the issue.
"Even in a renowned institute like Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine, HIV-testing is required for all new students, even though they have already passed the entrance exam and are about to enrol in the faculty," said Mr Jon, director of Access, an Aids counselling organisation.
He and his NGO colleagues had tried unsuccessfully to convince the faculty administrators to change the policy.
Actress Risa Honghirun, who moderated the forum, cited the case of a young HIV-positive woman who wrote a book about her ordeal.
After getting a master's degree from a renowned university, she applied successfully for a job at a big company.
But before she started work, the company required her to get a health certificate, which included HIV-testing.
It was only then she found out she had contracted HIV from her boyfriend.
Fearing her HIV infection would be disclosed, she chose to reject the job.
Compulsory screening not only bars HIV-positive people from education or job opportunities, but also threatens their right to appropriate medical treatment.
Mr Jon said many hospitals require patients to have an HIV test if they are to undergo an operation.
"In many cases, when the patients were found to be HIV-positive, they were denied an operation. I know of one HIV-positive patient who died of a heart valve disease after many doctors denied him an operation," he said.
This was a violation of the patient's rights. Any violation which caused the death of a person was totally unacceptable.
Confidentiality was another ethical problem.
He said it was strange to find that hospitals were sometimes the places where violations occurred most.
At Chulalongkorn hospital, he had seen red rubbish bags placed near the beds of Aids patients to distinguish them from others.
He was not sure whether this practice was still going on.
Senator Rabeabrat Pongpanich called on the government to pay more attention to the problems of HIV/Aids. The issue was rarely addressed in its platform policies.
Statistics from the epidemiology division showed that last year there were nearly a million people infected with HIV in Thailand, and that on average one person died of an Aids-related disease every 15 minutes.
This year, the number of HIV-positive people had increased to 1.3 million, with one person dying every seven minutes.
Ms Risa said the media was a contributing factor to social stigma and prejudice against HIV/Aids.
"Most of the published articles are written from the perspective of people without HIV/Aids, which project only fearful and negative images of the disease," she said.
Media reports should be presented in a positive way, describing the lives of HIV-positive people, how they feel, what they need and how they are no different from others, she said.
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