Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 4, 2003
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
The promotion was planned after the ministry found that the greatest number of new HIV infections each year occur among young people.
Charal Trinvuthiphong, director-general of the Diseases Control Department, said the focus would be on students and industrial workers aged 19-25. Despite success in campaigning for 100% condom use among sex workers, only one-third of young unmarried couples who had casual sex were thought to use condoms.
Condoms were hard to find, which was one of the main obstacles in getting sexually active people to protect themselves. He urged universities, factories, offices, department stores and hotels to sell them.
Condom manufacturers and distributors were urged to slash prices from 20 baht for two to five baht to attract users. But Promboon Panitchpakdi of Care Thailand, an NGO working on Aids, said the campaign was unlikely to work because it would be held in formal settings. Sex education taught in schools, had not worked because teachers did not relate the issues in a manner that was of interest to students, he said.
The ministry also plans to spend one billion baht, obtained from the Global Aids Fund and the government's Aids budget, to provide free anti-retroviral drugs to 50,000 people next year, health deputy permanent secretary Pakdi Pothisiri said. This would include the purchase of 21 machines to measure white blood-cell counts, and training for doctors, nurses, and counsellors.
Manit Theeratantikanon, deputy director-general of the department, said the machines would enable doctors to monitor the reaction of the drug on people under the programme.
People with HIV whose white blood-cell count was 200 or below would be eligible for free anti-retroviral drugs.
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