Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - July 11, 2004
Anucha Charoenpo
The disease has already claimed about 10 lives, leaving orphans to be cared for by their grandparents.
Thassanee Srimongkol, northern project director of the Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand (PPAT), blamed the government for failing to educate the community about Aids prevention.
Mrs Thassanee said the situation in the village is getting worse, because villagers know little about how to protect themselves from the virus and get no help from government agencies.
Their cultural habits and spiritual beliefs put them at increased risk since the highlanders do not consider premarital sex a taboo.
PPAT, a non-governmental organisation, is now on alert against HIV/Aids in the village after providing villagers with counselling about the disease.
But she admitted that PPAT still needed more cooperation from the government to help with the project and expand it.
The problem could be similar or even worse in other hilltribe villages in the northern provinces. Jatho Pansangko, the former village chief, pointed to poverty as a cause of the problem, saying it forced villagers to leave their homes to find jobs in Chiang Mai and other provinces.
Many Lahu women worked at karaoke bars and pubs, where they sold sexual services, while the men worked at construction sites and contracted the virus from prostitutes which they passed on to their wives, he said.
Nasong, a 23-year-old Lahu woman, married her husband despite knowing he had the virus.
She said she knew little about the disease and never thought that those infected would die so soon.
"I loved him so much, that's why I married him," said Nasong, who now has Aids.
"If I could do it over again, I would not marry him," she said.
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