- Hello Jeff - Although there is some good news this year
from Thailand, other countries, like New Guinea are facing a subsharan
African- type outbreak.
-
- "The spread in P.N.G.(Papua New Guinea) is very
alarming," he says. "Of all the countries in the region, P.N.G.
has the greatest chance of having a sub-Saharan African-type epidemic."
-
- "China may face up to 10 million HIV carriers by
2010."
-
- One other big problem that is not being mentioned and
not being addressed is Hepatitis C. Many people all over the world are
coinfected HIV with HCV.
-
- Thailand has finally realized that they need to face
the HIV problem with more then a message of prevention. Unfortunately,
Thailand has lost a couple of generations of people. In some villages,
only the very young and the very old have survived. Grandparents now care
for young children and infants. Many of the young female children have
died of aids do to the sex trade. The Thai economy has caused many parents
to sell their female children to the sex trade. These children have died
from HIV/Aids, and, I suspect, some from HCV.
-
- I am quite sure that HIV/Aids and HCV will be responsible
for more deaths then have been lost in all wars combined. We need to remember
that anitviral drugs do not CURE HIV/Aids. Interferon/Ribaviran is NOT
a CURE for HCV. People will still die from both diseases.
-
- Patricia Doyle
-
- Thailand Focusing On AIDS Treatment
By Ron Corben
Bangkok
7-27-4
-
- Thailand's HIV and AIDS victims received good news at
the International AIDS Conference held in the Thai capital earlier this
month: the government pledged to make anti-retroviral drugs available to
all those who have the disease. However, the Asia-Pacific region as a whole
experienced the world's fastest rate of HIV infections last year, and several
countries in the region are said to be especially vulnerable to the disease.
-
- Thailand, with its large sex industry, was one of the
first Asian countries to be hit hard by AIDS. About one million Thais are
infected with HIV - the virus that causes AIDS, and there are some 20,000
new infections each year.
-
- The figures would be higher, however, if the country
had not instituted a massive program of education and condom distribution
more than a decade ago. Now, the government has decided to focus on treatment
as well as prevention.
-
- At the International AIDS Conference held here earlier
this month, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra declared his government would
see that everyone infected with HIV receives anti-retroviral medication.
The drugs slow the disease's progression and allow carriers to lead normal
lives.
-
- Yasmin Halima, a British AIDS activist, sees the Thai
government's stance as a positive outcome of the AIDS conference. "Bangkok
is another watershed and it's placed [AIDS] higher on the political agenda
than ever before," she says. "For the first time we were talking
about really getting treatment to people."
-
- Father Joe Maier, a Catholic priest who for three decades
has worked in the Bangkok slum community of Klong Toey, also hailed the
prime minister's speech. But he wants to see action as well as words. "It
was the perfect speech by the prime minister, and I just hope it happens.
Let us hope it works," he says. "I have my doubts."
-
- Father Maier has had a first-hand view as AIDS has spread
through Thai society. His hospice in Klong Toey has assisted hundreds afflicted
with the disease. "AIDS is here forever," he says. "AIDS
is in the middle of the community. It's with the moms and dads and the
children. It's right in the middle of society, right in our homes."
-
- Scientists at the AIDS conference said that if governments
acted now, the rest of the Asia-Pacific region also could be spared the
catastrophic infection rates that sub-Saharan Africa has suffered. However,
they said, even with prevention programs, the AIDS problem will grow.
-
- Dr. David Cooper of St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney,
Australia, was co-chairman of the scientific panels at the conference.
"My take on the outcome of the debate is that it won't be an African
style-epidemic, but nevertheless there will be explosive outbreaks affecting
hundreds of thousands or millions of people related to specific risk transmission,"
says Dr. Cooper.
-
- The Asia-Pacific region as a whole experienced the world's
fastest rate of new infections in 2003. Experts estimate there are more
than seven million people with HIV in the Asia-Pacific region, with China,
India, Indonesia, and Vietnam especially vulnerable to new infections.
China has been warned it may face up to 10 million HIV carriers by 2010.
-
- If any country faces an Africa-like epidemic, Dr. Cooper
says, it is Papua New Guinea, or P.N.G., where the infection rate is surging.
The country has about 16,000 HIV victims, up from about 10,000 in 2001.
"The spread in P.N.G.(Papua New Guinea) is very alarming," he
says. "Of all the countries in the region, P.N.G. has the greatest
chance of having a sub-Saharan African-type epidemic."
-
- While Thailand has had considerable success in slowing
the spread of AIDS, other countries in the Asia-Pacific region are still
struggling to contain the disease.
-
- In some countries, such as Papua New Guinea, extreme
poverty and low education levels make it difficult to carry out AIDS-prevention
programs. In other countries, such as India, a slow government response
and a highly mobile society have allowed the virus to spread dramatically.
-
- http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=C
2F1A03F-7F2F-4C00-A78B5774AB268A3B
-
- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?
Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
|
