Asian must break taboos to fight AIDS

Asian must break taboos to fight AIDS

By Thomas Fox

BANGKOK (AFP): Conservative societies in Asia and the Pacific
must broach the taboo subject of sexual relations to change the
risky behavior of men and halt the spread of the regional AIDS
epidemic, experts said.

More developed countries like Malaysia and Singapore have yet
to acknowledge that the mainstream population is at risk, doctor
Chris Beyrer told a forum at the Foreign Correspondents Club of
Thailand on Wednesday.

"Malaysia is open with the data on intravenous drug users
(with AIDS), but the real problem is heterosexual transmission.
The government won't admit it," he said.

Large numbers of Malaysians visit brothels in Thailand, and
unknown numbers have brought the disease back to their families,
said Beyrer, field director of a joint program by U.S.-based John
Hopkins University and Chiang Mai University.

Singapore releases even less data on rates of infection and
other information vital to health professionals, he said.

Beyrer said governments had to be more realistic about the
spread of AIDS, citing an Indian minister for health who told a
recent conference that the answer to the problem lay in "family
values."

"One-third of medical practitioners in India are not licensed
and sex is something that is not discussed. What does
prostitution have to do with family values?" Beyrer said.

Beyrer cited Thailand as one country that was taking steps to
change sexual habits that put families at risk -- primarily
through education on the spread of AIDS and the promotion of safe
sex.

"Thailand is a standout in the region. In some places no one
talks about it (how AIDS is spread). The rate of new infections
among visitors to brothels (in Thailand) has been falling since
1993," he said.

An estimated 750,000-800,000 Thais are infected with the Human
Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) which leads to the Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), doctor Damrong Boonyeon of the Public
Health Ministry said.

Experts and non-governmental organizations also agreed that
Thailand had the most reliable statistics on AIDS in the Asia-
Pacific region.

Only India has a higher number of persons infected with HIV,
due in part to its huge population, while Burma and Cambodia
ranked third and fourth in the region, Beyrer said.

Indonesia and Vietnam are virtual "black holes" in terms of
information on the spread of the AIDS epidemic despite increasing
numbers of cases, especially on Vietnam's border with China, he
said.

Burmese border provinces and China's neighboring Yunan
province, adjacent to northern Thailand, are also centers for the
epidemic, which thrives on trafficking in drugs and prostitutes,
according to experts on the region.

The spread of the AIDS epidemic is almost out of control in
Burma and Cambodia, where public health systems are not really
functioning, Beyrer said.

Despite its positive steps, Thailand still faces the terrible
social and economic costs of lost labor, medical expenses and the
breakdown of families, particularly those deprived of the
breadwinner, said Vitit Muntarbhorn, a Chulalongkorn University
law professor.

Legal and social discrimination has to be addressed to cope
with increasing strains on family support systems and public
health facilities, he said.

The Thai government's great accomplishment has been its
nationwide efforts to educate society about the dangers of what
has been regarded as normal male behavior, the frequenting of
prostitutes and unprotected sex, Vitit said.

Thailand's neighbors face similar challenges, and this is the
message Thai delegates will bring to them at the Third
International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific to be
held Sept. 16-21 in Chiang Mai, Damrong said.