Phuket Number One in HIV/Aids nationwide
Phuket Number One in HIV/Aids nationwide:
Schoolchildren take part in an HIV/Aids awareness campaign
at an event at Big C Supercenter on December 1, World Aids Day.
PHUKET CITY: Phuket has the highest incidence of HIV/Aids infection of Thailand’s 76 provinces, but the figures are skewed by the island’s huge migrant population, the island’s top government doctor says.
Dr Pongsawat Rattanasaeng, director of the Phuket Public Health office, said Phuket’s emergence as a top tourist destination is largely responsible for the province’s dubious distinction as Thailand’s ‘per capita’ leader in HIV/Aids.
Migrant workers from all parts of the country make their way here to work in Phuket, but are never registered as residents of the province.
Those who contract HIV and test positive at government hospitals in the province are counted among Phuket’s HIV/Aids cases, he explained.
Phuket’s official population is listed at around 330,000, but government estimates put the number of Thai people living here at about double that amount.
The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) calculates instance rates of ‘cases per 100,000 members of the population’ for comparative purposes. The problem comes when the number of cases derived from the actual population is divided by the much lower ‘official’ population.
Only HIV cases involving Thai nationals are included in the MoPH statistics, he explained.
The MoPH keeps separate records for cases involving migrant workers from neighbouring states. Most of these return home, but there are currently about 20 being treated for HIV/Aids in Phuket, he said.
Legally-registered migrant workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia are eligible for treatment under the government’s universal health care program initiated by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Dr Pongsawat said that to mark December 1, World AIDS Day, the provincial government launched a number of public awareness campaigns to better inform people about how to prevent contracting HIV – and what to do if they test positive. Many of the activities involve youths, as they are deemed at high risk.
Systematic government HIV/Aids tracking statistics in Thailand began 20 years ago, in 1989.
>From then until October 2009, reports from hospitals and clinics in Phuket revealed 6,648 cases of HIV infection, with 1,767 fatalities, Dr Pongsawat said.
There are currently 3,813 people undergoing HIV/Aids treatment in the province. Of these, just 805 are symptomatic. The ratio of male-to-female cases is about 2:1, he said.
Most patients are in the 25-39 age bracket and those infected identified themselves as working in a variety of professions including ‘workers for hire’ and housekeepers – as well as the unemployed.
Police nab drug users for wrong reasons: support groups
A Bangkok-based drug-users support group and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/Aids out of Canada on Thursday accused the Thai police of committing serious ethical violation by setting a pseudo sting operation to nab injection drug users (IDU) while seeking treatment.
Nearly half of the 252 IDU surveyed said police has planted drugs on them and claimed that they had to pay bribe to the police to avoid arrest.
“This form of drug planting was found to be associated with numerous health-related harms including syringe sharing and drug-related overdose,” said Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG) and the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (Vancouver, Canada), in a statement released Thursday.
“Further, half of those IDU who reported having had drugs planted on them by police said they paid a bribe in order to avoid the arrest.