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 8, 2003
Onnucha Hutasing
His remark followed reports that more Thai people aged 15-29 were getting infected with the HIV virus through unsafe sex and the percentage of condom use among this age group was under 30%.
Mr Mechai, who successfully campaigned for birth control in the 1980s, told the ninth national conference against Aids yesterday that the state was less active in educating people about Aids prevention.
"I want to call on the prime minister to be in charge of Aids control himself by being chairman of the national Aids committee, instead of assigning his deputy to do this duty. This is because the prime minister has a strong personality and is hard working.
"I want the public to realise that Aids kills many people each year and is a serious threat to national security," the president of the Population Development Association of Thailand said.
Mr Mechai said campaigns must run nationwide to educate the people, even primary school students, about condom use.
"Do not be shy to talk about condoms. For children who are too young to use condoms, they can get familiar with condoms by playing with them like balloons or following a fashion trend by putting mobile phones in condoms to keep them from getting wet in the rain," he said.
Mr Mechai also urged the government to set up a fund for those with HIV and their families to borrow from, so they could earn their living and afford to buy anti-Aids medicines.
He exemplified non-governmental organisations' Positive & Partnership Fund for HIV people and others to seek loans for their occupations on the condition that all projects must be evaluated and non-HIV debtors must help educate those in their communities about Aids prevention.
Mr Mechai said the fund enabled those with HIV to earn enough money to buy daily 40-baht sets of medicines, and was proven effective with a repayment rate of 95%.
Dr Charan Trinwuthipong, director-general of the Communicable Disease Control Department, said Thailand's anti-Aids campaign has been going on since 1984 and had been successful in making 97-98% of all sex workers opt for condom use.
However, it was of concern that more people aged 15-29, especially women, had become infected with HIV mainly because of unsafe sex.
There are about one million people with Aids in Thailand. About 50,000 Thai people die of Aids each year.
The Public Health Ministry has set a goal to curb yearly HIV infection to 15,000 cases in 2006 from 21,000 cases estimated this year.
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