InterPress News Service (IPS); Wednesday, 12 November 1997.
Prangtip Daorueng

But Ittirak Smithsuwan is no glamourous hunk hawking the latest in fashion. The 31-year-old -- who appears in the ads with his mother -- represents the newest phase in Thailand's anti-AIDS campaign.

Thailand is among Asia's HIV/AIDS hot spots, with an estimated HIV prevalence rate of 2.3 percent or 800,000 people estimated to have the virus that causes AIDS. Since 1990, however, the number of new HIV cases has declined four-fold, largely because of the government's aggressive information and awareness drive.

But while the campaign proved successful in limiting the spread of the illness, it played on people's fears about AIDS. This led to discrimination against people with the illness, most of whom became too frightened to reveal themselves and talk about what they were going through.

"At that time, not so many people had good understanding about AIDS," says, Ittirak who was diagnosed as HIV-positive in 1986. "All campaigns then showed it as a monstrous decease. It gave the impression to me as well as to everybody else that AIDS was something people couldn't live with."

"The way AIDS was shown in media really affected people," he adds. "I remember the first year when I tried to gather myself to fight it. Sometimes, when I started to be able to control myself, I saw campaigns on TV saying there was no choice for us but die. It really brought me down."

In the past two years, however, the Thai government has been trying to correct mistakes it made in its earlier anti-AIDS campaigns. Today, its campaign is aimed at increasing understanding not only about AIDS itself, but also of people with the illness.

That was why Ittirak got a phone call from the Office of the Prime Minister in 1996. He recalls: "They wanted to change the way campaign against AIDS was run, and they said they needed my help."

"I was reluctant at first," says Ittirak, who was by then an AIDS counsellor. "Some friends who dared to open up received negative reaction from their communities. Finally many people encouraged me, saying I might change people's attitudes about us who live with AIDS. So I did it."

'It' is the television ad Ittiwan did last year, in which he talked about how his life has been since testing positive. The TV spot also featured his mother, Thida. Many AIDS activists say the obvious affection between mother and son has helped change the popular belief that people with AIDS are doomed to die alone.

Government AIDS campaigners were so happy with the mostly positive reaction toward the comercial that Ittiwan and Thida, 57, found themselves making a second TV spot.

The follow-up advertisement, which began running this October, shows Thida bringing a cake for Ittiwan's birthday. According to the ad's makers, the spot is supposed to encourage families to accept their HIV-infected members.

Another new government TV spot on AIDS is situated in the workplace. Its message is that people with AIDS do not necessarily put those they come into contact with at high risk of infection.

Ittiwan says many people called him up after the first spot ran. "They said they thought they were alone -- until they turned on the TV (and saw the ad). Sometimes, when I went out, people recognised me and they were always polite. I never got a negative reaction from others."

But then he corrects himself quickly, recalling how a distant relative had called up and insisted that someone with HIV could easily pass on the virus to members of the same household. Ittiwan ended up inviting other AIDS workers to talk to his family for him.

"It really made us feel uneasy at home," he admits. "I who had provided counselling to others couldn't talk to the members of my family when the problem happened in my own home."

All 13 members of the Smithsuwan household finally went to have a blood test. All came out negative. Says Ittiwan: "It was good for us in the end because it helped prove that HIV-infected people can really live with their families."

Life has become busier for Ittiwan since the ads began showing on television. But the young Thai had not been exactly idle before the government asked for his help. In 1994, he and some of his friends set up the 'Life and Hope Club,' a counselling group for HIV-infected people.

While only three of the group's founders are still alive, its work continues. Ittirak himself conducts counselling sessions at home. He and Thida have also travelled throughout the country, giving talks on AIDS in villages and in schools.

Ittiwan continues to worry about the depth of people's understanding of AIDS, though. For instance, he says, some people still ask if they can get AIDS by drinking water from the same glass used by an infected person.

"I think HIV-infected people should come out more to make others understand the real situation," says Ittiwan. "But at the same time, I understand how hard that can be."

AIDS activist Chayan Warnthanaputi says what Ittiwan is doing is one way HIV-infected people can fight against discrimination. In fact, he reports, about 3,000 people with HIV in northern Thailand have formed various groups that conduct talks and offer counselling.

More than half of Thailand's HIV/AIDS cases are in its six northern provinces. Since 1990, HIV infection rates among women there have been the highest in the country.

Chayan says the counselling-and-lecture groups have worked especially well in small communities, and have helped people with HIV gain acceptance from their neighbours.

Ittiwan describes what impact such support has had on him. These days, he says, he sees himself "as a person with HIV who is able to live confidently."

"I want others who have AIDS to feel the same," says Ittiwan. "I understand how hard it is to live with AIDS, but if we feel our lives worth living, it will help us to go on." (END/IPS/AP- HE/PD/CB/JS/97)

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