Voice of America News (02.14.09) - Friday, February 20, 2009
Ron Corben
Thailand could see up to 12,000 new HIV infections in 2009, with male and female sex workers among those most at risk, the Health Ministry recently warned. While that forecast is much lower than the 120,00 new infections the country was reporting annually a decade ago, it points to rising incidence within key populations, said UNAIDS Country Coordinator Patrick Benny.
"Those numbers, particularly in most at-risk populations in this country - sex workers, both male and female, injecting drug users - there are indications that rates of infections are actually rising on an annual basis, in those particular groups, even though the numbers overall may continue to be moving downward," Benny said.
Community-based organizations say raising HIV/AIDS awareness among sex workers is essential, as is curbing police harassment of them. "Many times we say that sex workers have a problem when they have a condom, that's because that means they are a sex worker and in Thailand the sex worker is illegal and then the sex worker will get arrested from the police," said Surang Janyam, director of the group SWING, which conducts HIV prevention among male sex workers in Bangkok and Pattaya.
SWING has reached out to police, discussing the problem with local officers and conducting training and awareness with recruits. For three weeks in their final year, several cadets are chosen to work with the group's staff. "The police cadets have to do the same as the SWING staff, they have to go educate the sex workers who are working on the street, who are working in the bar, and give them condoms and try to make them understand to take care of themselves and save themselves," said Surang.
No comments:
Post a Comment