Millions of Thais are at immediate risk of infection with HIV, one of
Thailand鈥檚 ministers said last week. And unless people change their sexual
behaviour, AIDS could cost the country 拢10 billion, 20 per cent of
its GDP, by the year 2000.
Mechai Viravaidya 鈥� a minister to the Prime Minister鈥檚 office known
throughout the country as the Condom King 鈥� said that between 200 000 and
400 000 Thais are probably already infected with HIV. Unless the government鈥檚
AIDS awareness campaign gets its message across, this figure could jump
to between 2 and 4 million within 10 years. Thailand has a population of
56 million.
According to Mechai, around 700 Thais become infected with HIV each
day. Only a few hundred cases of AIDS have been confirmed, but this is probably
because many cases are never reported.
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鈥業t鈥檚 not a risk group, it鈥檚 a risk nationality,鈥� said Mechai. The figure
of 拢10 billion, he explained, would be the total of lost earnings
and higher labour costs as the pool of workers shrinks, higher health costs,
loss of revenue as tourists go elsewhere, and a decline in income sent home
by Thais working abroad.
Thailand is launching an education campaign in the next few weeks targeted
mainly at primary schoolchildren and workers. In 1992, radio and television
advertising worth 拢60 million will be devoted to AIDS awareness, and
warnings will be printed on the packaging of a range of products, at petrol
stations and on cash dispensers.
The sex industry and men鈥檚 attitudes to sex are major causes of concern
said Mechai. Around 90 per cent of 16-year-old boys have visited a prostitute,
and many men buy sex twice a week. Between 5 and 10 per cent of the country鈥檚
200 000 female prostitutes are HIV positive. In some northern brothels half
the women are thought to be infected.
In some schools in the north, 1.8 per cent of boys and 0.6 per cent
of girls were HIV positive by the time they left school. In 1991, 3 per
cent of army recruits, aged 20 to 22, were found to be infected. The figure
was 15 per cent in some northern army units.
Werasit Sittitrai, deputy director of the Bangkok-based Programme on
Aids, said: 鈥楾he root of it is the permissiveness of Thai sexual culture.鈥�
