Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - Saturday 02 February 2002
Anjira Assavanonda
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said a criteria would be set by the committee screening Aids patients to determine who would be given priority for the treatment.
The matter was discussed yesterday at a meeting of the National Aids Committee, chaired by PM's Office Minister Pongpol Adireksarn.
Mrs Sudarat said the ministry would expand its services for 6,000 Aids sufferers since the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation can produce less expensive anti-retroviral drugs.
She said the scheme would cover another 6,000 sufferers this year if the 250-million-baht budget is approved.
The National Aids Committee yesterday approved the budget for the Communicable Diseases Control Department to conduct research in seven areas _ the use of anti-retroviral drugs, the strengthening of immune system, treatment and prevention of opportunistic infections, prevention from other sources of infections, laboratory testing, and traditional herbal treatment.
Mr Pongpol said the committee would set the direction of the National Plan for HIV/Aids Prevention and Solution (2002-2006), which will focus more on teenagers both in and out of educational system.
Mrs Sudarat was concerned today's teenagers were engaging in increasingly promiscuous behaviour, which put them at risk of HIV/Aids infection.
She said the issue was also discussed at the joint meeting between the Public Health and Education ministries on Thursday.
"A representative from the Education Ministry told the story of a group of girl students who went on a school camping trip and sneaked out at night to the nearby boys' camp to have sex," she said.
She also heard that some girls were competing with their peers by participating in sex games where they won points every time they had sex with a boy.
The national Aids plan also highlighted other susceptible groups such as drug addicts, sex workers, migrant workers, fishermen, industrial workers, pregnant women, and orphans born to HIV-positive mothers.
Mrs Sudarat said the ministry's Aids prevention programme yielded good results so far with the infection rate decreasing from over 140,000 people a year between 1989-1992 to 23,000 in 2001.
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