World AIDS Day

With millions of adults and children of all races worldwide becoming infected with HIV/AIDS and with countless victims succumbing to the deadly disease each day like leaves falling in autumn, there is no cause for celebration as countries around the world observe World AIDS Day yesterday.

And with the prospect of a cure still many years into the future the situation appears to be bleak and hopeless.

Yet, there is no reason for AIDS sufferers, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic, to lose hope or to live a destructive or useless life.

For those free of the deadly disease, the commemoration should serve as a reminder that this modern day scourge is still very much a real threat and that one cannot afford to drop his or her guard by practicing unsafe sex, which has become a major cause of transmission of the disease.

Although the situation in Thailand today is described as stable with the infection rate being reduced or stabilized, the outlook still remains gloomy.

According to rough estimates from the Ministry of Public Health, there are some 800,000 people who have been infected with HIV.

The disease has spread to every province in the country and has affected all groups of people in society: husbands, housewives, newly-born babies, monks, students, soldiers, fishermen and farmers. All have become victims of the disease, although the majority of them have yet to develop the symptoms.

Given the fact that 70 percent of HIV carriers are in lower- income groups, an educational campaign must be promoted and directed towards this group to encourage them to change their sexual behavior. Although this may be easier said than done, it is necessary to pursue this in order to reverse the trend.

AIDS knows no frontiers. To cope with this scourge, it is essential that all parties concerned wake up to the realization of its threat and join forces in a concerted effort to put a brake on its spread so long as a cure remains very much a dream.

-- The Bangkok Post