Little help for foreign AIDS patients

Little help for foreign AIDS patients

By Yvonne Chang

TOKYO (Reuters): Prapaporn Yoskorn, a registered nurse from
Thailand, has become a celebrity among Thai prostitutes working
in Japan.

Prapaporn returned to Thailand recently after seven months in
Japan offering advice on AIDS treatment to Thai women in the sex
industry.

"Not many came to me in the beginning, but word about me
spread and more and more women began calling me for help about
AIDS," said Prapaporn, who also speaks fluent Japanese, before
departing.

There are no official statistics on how many foreign
prostitutes work in Japan, but in a sign their numbers are
growing, 32 foreign women working in "bars" asked police for help
in 1997 compared with nine the previous year.

Apart from telephone consultations, Prapaporn visited
hospitals all over Japan to interpret for Thai patients and
negotiated with authorities if a patient wanted to go home.

She said of her hectic 122 days in Japan: "It was good that
they at least sought help. When people hide their illness or
don't know they have AIDS, that's when the disease spreads."

Two years have passed since a landmark settlement, in which
the government agreed to pay compensation to hemophiliacs who
contracted HIV through tainted blood products, highlighted the
plight of AIDS patients in Japan.

Japan continues to see an increase in the number of acquired
immune deficiency syndrome patients and carriers of the human
immunodeficiency virus that leads to AIDS, despite other nations
starting to show a decline.

According to Japan's Health Ministry, the number of new AIDS
and HIV-positive patients, excluding the haemophiliacs with the
disease, hit a record high of 647 in 1997.

Since the ministry started the survey in 1984, it recorded
3,985 HIV carriers and 1684 AIDS cases in Japan. The AIDS
Surveillance Committee said in its recent report the increases
were found mainly among male Japanese and female foreigners.

Experts say the most worrisome cases are foreigners without
proper visas working in Japanese factories and bars.

"They are the ones who need the most help, and those who carry
the greatest risk of spreading the disease, but there is a limit
to what we can do," said Mika Ishihara, chief coordinator at the
AIDS Clinical Center in Tokyo.

These people refuse to seek treatment until it is too late
because they fear being turned over to authorities and because
they do not belong to an insurance scheme and cannot afford the
costly AIDS medication.

"I can only tell them to lead a healthy life: to eat well,
sleep well, avoid alcohol and cigarettes...all things difficult
for women working in bars to do," Prapaporn said.

While correct information on AIDS is instrumental in fighting
the disease, doctors say such patients' knowledge of AIDS is
limited to what they learn by word of mouth.

Such limited knowledge sometimes forces AIDS victims to hide
from their friends and loved ones, quit work and can even drive
them to suicide, experts said.

Foreigners also tend to suffer more from psychological
depression either because they are alone in Japan and have no one
to turn to or they belong to a small, close-knit foreign
community where they fear their illness would be known to all.

Prapaporn said she tries to persuade these people to return
home, but many do not have the money to do so or fear being a
burden on or a source of shame for their families.

Also deeply involved in the fight against AIDS in Japan is
Teruko Enomoto, who runs a support group for foreign women,
organizes fund-raising projects for them and mediates on their
behalf with medical institutions and the authorities.

Enomoto said she was frustrated because hospitals and the
authorities were not taking advantage of support groups like hers
to help foreigners with AIDS.

She also criticized the lack of information for the public on
AIDS treatment in contrast to the flood of information and
discussion on AIDS prevention.

"But the biggest dilemma is that we can only provide temporary
relief and not offer fundamental solutions to their problems,"
said Enomoto.