Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - April 24, 2008
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul & Cheewin Sattha
Samran Takan, coordinator of Violet House, which provides counselling for gay men who who have contracted the virus in Chiang Mai province, said half the 200 HIV-positive gays who are members have developed resistance to the locally-made drug GPO-VIR.
However, they have not yet received the second-line drug Kaletra under the universal healthcare scheme.
"Most hospitals say they will provide the second-line treatment for patients who develop resistance to the first-line medicine. But we don't know how long we have to wait," he said.
The government said it would import the second-line drug for patients under the universal healthcare scheme more than a year ago.
The policy to bypass patents for the second-line anti-retroviral drug for emergency use was made in January 2007.
Thailand yesterday hosted the 22nd meeting of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids) in Chiang Mai. The event was attended by 350 representatives from member countries.
Public Health Ministry figures show that of the 14,000 new Aids cases in Thailand every year, 24% are gay men, the second largest group after housewives who get infected from their partners, mainly through unprotected sex.
About 100,000 HIV-positive people depend on drugs.
The Disease Control Department says about 12% of these people have developed resistance to first line-drugs such as GPO-VIR. The universal healthcare scheme run by the National Health Security Office (NHSO) began providing free drugs to HIV-positive patients listed under the programme in 2004.
Nimit Tienudom, chairman of the Aids Access Foundation and a member of the NHSO sub-panel overseeing the Aids programme, said most patients listed under the universal healthcare scheme had not received second-line treatment despite a compulsory licensing policy for the drug being in place.
A lack of screening equipment and health staff with expertise in screening had led to delays in getting the drug distributed.
The NHSO sub-panel overseeing Aids would bring the topic up for discussion on May 6.
Meanwhile, 200 activists and a patients' network yesterday rallied outside the meeting venue in Chiang Mai, demanding UNAids grant the underprivileged, such as inmates and foreign workers, access to life-saving drugs.
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