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.