THAILAND: Health activists march to mark World AIDS Day

Record ID: 402744

  • Title: THAILAND: Health activists march to mark World AIDS Day
  • Date: 2nd December 2009
  • Summary: PARADE
  • Embargoed: 17th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Thailand
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA59KYF3SP9Z7Q8QYY9A1MFKOLL
  • Story Text: Hundreds of health activists march in the Thai capital, Bangkok, to mark World AIDS Day.
    Hundreds of activists marched in the Thai capital on Tuesday (December 1) to commemorate World AIDS Day and raise awareness about using condoms.
    Health officials, soldiers, activists and students paraded in Bangkok's downtown district of Patpong, which is well-known for being a red-light district, to hand out condoms to passers-by.
    The parade aims to encourage people to practice safe sex with the slogan "No condom, no sex."
    About 20,000 people have been newly infected with the deadly disease this year, compared to the last 10 years where up to 150,000 had contracted the virus, according to the Thai Red Cross.
    Free health check-ups have been made available to sex workers in Thailand, and men have been discouraged from visiting prostitutes.
    Condom usage in Bangkok's brothels rose from 15 percent in the early 1990s to 98 percent by 2000.
    Infection rates have fallen and such practices remain widely cited as a model in disease prevention among health experts -- although the number of HIV cases has shown signs of creeping up in the last few years among some high risk groups, such as gay and bisexual men.
    "The numbers of newly infected patients from gay men's groups has been increasing which is terrifying. The gay male community in every part of the world including America, Europe and Australia. We don't know why it has happened like this." said Praphan Phanuphak, Director of the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Centre.
    The AIDS virus infects an estimated 33 million people globally and has killed 25 million since it was identified in the 1980s.
    About 600,000 people in Thailand are now living with AIDS, according to UNAIDS.
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