HEALTH-THAILAND: Unsafe Sex Hikes HIV Rates among Young People

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 2 2003 (IPS) - A lack of regular condom use by sexually active youth in Thailand has triggered a rise in HIV infection rates among teenagers, say public health officials.

Studies have shown that the infection rate among sexually active Thai teens rose to 17 percent in 2002 compared to 11 percent in the previous year, according to the English-language daily ‘Bangkok Post’ on Thursday.

Health officials say this six percent increase is the result of teenagers not practising safe sex.

”Less than half of the country’s sexually active teenagers used condoms,” Charan Treunwuthipong, of the communicable disease control department, was quoted as having told the ‘Post.’

It is a figure that alarms health officials, given the country’s successful public campaigns over the years to promote safe sex practices through condom use to stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Evidence of this successful campaign is borne out by what public health investigators have unearthed about the women working in Thailand’s thriving sex industry. Some 97 percent of the sex workers said ”they refused to have sex without a condom,” states the ‘Post.’

But this success also reflects part of the problem – the safe sex campaigns appear to have made more headway in groups like sex workers than among the general population and young Thais.

The HIV cases among the youth – HIV/AIDS was the second leading cause of death among Thais aged 15 to 24 last year – have in fact driven health officials to produce a similar change of behaviour among the youth.

But these efforts are running into strong opposition from the ministries of education and the interior.

This week, the two ministries objected to a move to place condom vending machines in public places. Several vending machines placed in the provinces have been removed by local police on grounds that they were ”inappropriate”, news reports said.

These reactions show a failure to grasp the significance of making condoms easily available, say officials of the national AIDS prevention and control commission, the body responsible for locating the vending machines in public.

”They think these machines promote the use of condoms,” said Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng, who also heads the commission.

Education officials also fear that placing the machines will promote sexual activity among the youth.

But this has not deterred health officials from keeping young people, who are having sex at younger ages than in the past, clearly in their sights in anti-HIV/AIDS programmes.

Youth will be among those targeted by the communicable disease control department during this year’s AIDS prevention campaign, where, according to Charan, over 20 million baht (466,000 U.S. dollars) worth of condoms will be distributed.

If a survey in 2000 conducted by ‘Thai Rath,’ the biggest selling Thai-language newspaper, is a gauge to go by, health authorities will have to target the entire range of teen years.

Thai youngsters, the survey found out, are having sex between the ages of 14 to 18, with some having their first sexual experience at 13.

Also, the 1999 Durex Global Sex Survey, sponsored by the condom manufacturer Durex, found that among the 16 to 22 year-old Thais polled, 88 percent said they were worried about contracting HIV/AIDS but only 23 percent used condoms.

Thailand has some 670,000 adults and children living with HIV/AIDS out of a population of 63.5 million people, states the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in its 2002 global report.

Since HIV was first detected in Thailand in the 1980s, over 300,000 people have died from the pandemic.

More, however, could have died had not Thai authorities stepped in with well-funded and politically supported HIV/AIDS prevention efforts, including high profile condom-use campaigns.

These campaigns, according to UNAIDS, ”have saved millions of lives, reducing the number of new HIV infections from 143,000 in 1991 to 29,000 in 2001”.

But despite Thailand’s record in showing a decrease in new HIV cases and the openness of its safe sex campaigns, giving correct information about reproductive health, sexuality and HIV/AIDS is not always easy.

For instance, a frank book designed for use in sexual education classes was withheld last year when government officials and parents groups objected to its use and said it would entice young people to try having sex.

Controversy also surrounded the bold and frank approach used by a high school teacher in her sex education classes in an all-male school here in the Thai capital, although the government had recognised her contributions.

Often, the teacher takes out a condom and demonstrates how it is used with the help of a rubber model of a penis for a prop. At times, she is also known to show her charges how female condoms and home pregnancy kits are used.

Those who object to condom distribution efforts lack an understanding of the needs of young people today and the need for proactive measures against the pandemic, Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon said.

People have ”to change their attitude and perception in dealing with problems concerning AIDS,” he told the ‘Post’.