Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Tuesday, April 6, 1999
Mary Binks

At five feet tall and 260 pounds, Dr. John Chittick cuts an unlikely figure slogging through the steamy southern provinces. But Chittick, who recently packed up his life in Boston, plans to spend the next 18 months crossing the world to make young people more aware of the danger of AIDS.

In the crowded markets on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, Chittick has become a pied piper for the noisy throngs of giggling teenagers.

"I think if people see this older guy, a fat American guy who's not Arnold Schwarzenegger, they'll understand that I'm here for a very serious reason," Chittick, 50, told Reuters on the road after beginning his journey last month.

He is not overstating his case. Asia has the world's fastest growth rate of infection by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS. The disease is spreading fast in nations such as Communist-ruled Vietnam, which has a huge young population and where prostitution and drug abuse are rampant.

By the end of last year, official figures put the number of HIV carriers at 11,350, some 2,000 of them with AIDS. By the end of this year the number is expected to leap to almost 120,000 HIV carriers, 15,000 of them AIDS sufferers, according to the state-run National AIDS Committee.

A committee official said the numbers were expected to shoot up because of a recent intensive investigation into the actual number of HIV and AIDS sufferers countrywide. The jump also took into account growing drug use and prostitution.

Chittick, who has a doctorate in AIDS research from Harvard University, believes the scope of the tragedy is far worse but hopes the publicity from his walk and talks with young people along the way will have an impact. Nevertheless, he warns of a global pandemic among youth.

"I believe in Vietnam the figures are much greater because young people are not counted in the estimates," said Chittick, who has dedicated his walk to Jonathan Mann, a renowned AIDS researcher who died last September in the crash of Swiss Air Flight 111 off Canada.

Death Slow But Inevitable

On the grounds of Ho Chi Minh City's Drug Prevention Center, hundreds of drug addicts stretch during morning exercises. Up to one third of them are HIV positive.

Intravenous drug use has become the biggest factor in the spread of AIDS in Vietnam, whose largely rural population of 79 million remains one of the poorest in the world.

Nguyen Van Ngai, head of Binh Trieu hospital next door, said that as urban incomes rose with the adoption of economic reforms a decade ago more youth experimented with drugs.

"As addiction grows they are forced into intravenous drug use because it's cheaper. And as the drug problem increases so does the spread of AIDS," he said.

Upstairs, patients lie on death row. Gaunt men with hollowed cheeks, they twist and turn in the heat. Some have their hands and feet bound to their beds. All are AIDS patients and former drug addicts.

"I'm more dead than alive," said Nong Hieu Khuong, 42, a former delivery man who caught the virus from sharing needles. "Look at me so you can understand."

But some of Vietnam's AIDS patients refuse to go quietly. Do Kim Son, 43, was the first AIDS carrier to speak out publicly in Vietnam in an attempt to break down rigid and conservative barriers to AIDS awareness.

"I faced many difficulties but firstly the struggle in my family. They were frightened of rejection by their friends," said Son, who hopes to live until the end of the year.

Now he and a group of other AIDS sufferers spend their final days caring for the sick and teaching young people in the city's slums about AIDS awareness. "I'm living in the last stages of the disease now and I'm in a lot of pain," Son said. "But each day I try to overcome my fate and live on."

As in many Asian countries, education and prevention measures have not kept pace with the disease. At the MERUFA Medical Rubber Factory, one of two in the country, 80 million condoms are made each year. But 30% are exported and health workers say domestic suppliers will meet only half of the country's demand this year for 187 million condoms.

Chittick may feel he has far to go. But, for a man who had quadruple bypass surgery four years ago and suffers from diabetes and a sleeping disorder, nothing seems impossible.

After Vietnam lies a swing through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Indian subcontinent, eastern Europe, Africa and Brazil.

Chittick insists the journey is not a marathon but a mission. He may even save lives. "And hey, I may come back in pretty good shape," he joked, wiping the sweat off his face.

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