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
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul
In an interview with the Bangkok Post, the UNAids executive director said the government should try harder to match supply with demand.
The government plans to provide its locally-produced drug - GPOVIR - for 50,000 HIV-positive people by the end of this year.
"The government's free-HIV treatment could be more ambitious given the number of HIV patients in need of affordable drugs," he said.
The government should also revise its prevention and education campaigns for young people and pay more attention to harm-reduction and rehabilitation of addicts, he said.
So far 33,481 patients have received the anti-retroviral pills made by the Public Health Ministry's Government Pharmaceutical Organisation.
The state enterprise makes GPOVIR for a group of Aids patients under a programme partly financed by the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
It makes low-cost generic versions of an anti-retroviral drugs for about 1,200 baht a patient a month.
A campaign called Access for All will be discussed at the 15th International Aids Conference in Bangkok this week, which 20,000 government leaders, advocates and scientists are attending.
Organisers hope the event will kick-start efforts to stop millions of children and young adults dying from the disease, by gaining leadership commitments to improve HIV prevention strategy, access to affordable treatment and ending the stigma faced by people living with the disease.
"Conferences such as this one are always a good opportunity to draw attention to Aids throughout the world and share news of Thailand's success in curbing the disease.
So the country would be a model for other countries to fight against Aids," said Dr Piot.
In Thailand, more than 100,000 people living with HIV/Aids are now at an advanced stage of infection and urgently require treatment.
Dr Piot said the government should put generic drugs in the national health care scheme so every patient can get access.
The government should ensure that any free-trade agreement negotiations do not push up the price of drugs and cause problems for Aids sufferers in getting access to low-cost medicines.
"While the country has made progress in terms of curbing the number of new infections, much more work is needed," he said. That included tackling the HIV infection rate among drug users.
Thailand needed prevention measures for drug users, including clean needles, methadone and a harm-reduction programme.
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