AEGiS-Bangkok Post: Editorial: No time to let up in the Aids battle

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Editorial: No time to let up in the Aids battle

Bangkok Post - January 7, 2003

Thailand first confronted the terrible problem of Aids more than 15 years ago. At first there was denial, a short but critical period when the infections and disease gained a foothold. Then, with leadership from both the government and private sector, the nation faced the reality of the worst epidemic in memory. A public-backed campaign to fight Aids has slowed but not halted the disaster. But now, one of the world's most effective campaigns against Aids is showing troubling signs of breakdown. Quick and serious steps are necessary to restore it.

Figures released at year's end show the most troubling signs of a new Aids vector among teenagers. The Public Health Ministry said a study showed evidence that young people are either unaware of or unconcerned about the Aids and HIV epidemic. The rate of HIV infection among teenagers rose 6% last year, according to the Communicable Disease Control Department. Just as troubling was confirmation that young people are the highest risk group for Aids/HIV.

The cumulative studies of the department seem to prove suspicions that Thais under 20 practise safe sex less than any other age group. Fewer than half are said to use condoms. That makes teenagers a high risk group. Young people not only place themselves in danger of contracting HIV and then Aids, they put much of the rest of the population in danger from spreading the disease.

The failure of programmes to educate and motivate younger people to help fight the Aids/HIV epidemic is bad news for Thailand. But the story is even worse. It is accompanied by a new rise of conservative and ill-informed groups who apparently seek to move the nation back to the days of denial, cover-ups and ignorance.

The government - to its credit - has exposed a new campaign against the most modest steps by the National Aids Prevention and Control Commission. The commission has run into opposition to a plan to distribute condoms among young people. The opponents want to stop such a plan, on the dubious claim that the distribution of condoms will encourage young people to be promiscuous. One would have hoped this sort of thinking would have disappeared over the past 15 years as Thailand came to grips with the dreadful Aids/HIV epidemic.

It is disheartening to still have to battle Aids on two fronts. On one hand, the Aids fight must be regenerated. Young people obviously are not listening to the unfortunately decreasing information about Aids. Imaginative and intense programmes must be started, rejuvenated and revived. On the other, the country has to battle a tiny and largely obstructive group that would prevent education and distribution of safe-sex information and items on outdated, disproved moral grounds.

It is necessary to jump-start the battle against Aids in all possible ways. That includes, as a modest start, the condom vending machines by the National Aids Commission - in factories, nightclubs and, yes, schools, as the commission proposes. The frequent connection between drugs and unsafe sex also must be stressed. Drug traffickers must be pursued. Schools must revitalise their education on Aids, which often is treated as just another boring part of the curriculum.

The notion "We have seen what Aids can do" is wrong. Rates of HIV infection and full-blown Aids continue to rise, most especially in Asia. Our neighbours are at major risk and so, it seems, are our young people. Youngsters may feel that scientific advances and retroviral medicines are some sort of protection. That ignores the reality that the only way to prevent HIV infection is by abstinence or careful precaution. One does not live with Aids, even though some people will live many years on painful diets of pills. The Aids epidemic can get much worse. It would be foolish not to fight.

030107
BP030105

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