Dr. Somchai Sreepleanjan,
medical officer of the ECHO research project, estimates Thailand has
about 500,000 carriers of the HIV virus, but only half are aware they
have it, due to insufficient testing.
Urasin Khantaraphan
Pattaya public-health officials said their efforts to promote
“voluntary counseling and testing” for HIV and AIDS in the city’s
entertainment districts has been largely a failure, with too few
participants and too few medical technicians to serve them.
At an Aug. 20 meeting to review July’s “VCT Day” on Soi 6, and plan
future projects, meeting leader Ra-anya Jantrakas, a nurse with the
Pattaya Public Health Department, heard that there have been many
obstacles to success in sending teams out to test sex workers for HIV at
their employers.
The department previously informed club owners about their project, but
the information wasn’t disseminated well enough, resulting in a low
turnout. And most of those who knew of the testing event did not
cooperate and take the test for reasons ranging from being scared of the
result to shame.
Other problems included a lack of consultants and medical technicians,
resulting in long waits and people leaving before being seen. And many
who did stay provided insufficient information on their registration
documents due to not understanding them.
Dr. Somchai Sreepleanjan, medical officer of the ECHO research project,
estimated Thailand has about 500,000 carriers of the HIV virus, but only
half are aware they have it, due to insufficient testing.
He noted that hospitals provide full testing, consultation and treatment
services and advocated that more effort should be put into getting
people to voluntarily get tested at these facilities through such
activities as the annual AIDS Day.
This year’s theme for AIDS Day is “the six pros of HIV testing,” which
include immediate treatment, improved health through treatment,
protecting your partner, child and yourself, and increased knowledge of
HIV and AIDS.
