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Eastern region seeing higher HIV
infection rates, PHPT researcher says
Pra-ornsuda Sukrakanchana (left), coordinator
of the PHPT research project, looks on as Gonzague Jourdain (right),
speaks to local health workers at City Hall.
Vittaya Yoondorn
Researchers from a Chiang Mai organization aimed at improving
HIV prevention and care at the family level told Pattaya-area health
care providers that despite huge gains in preventing the spread of AIDS,
infection rates remain high in Thailand’s eastern region.
Gonzague Jourdain, director of the Program for HIV Prevention and
Treatment, said Oct. 3 at the City Hall lecture that HIV passed from
mother to infant in Thailand has fallen to less than 1 percent of all
infections, down from more than 10 percent when PHPT was founded in
1996.
However, Thailand’s eastern and central regions are still seeing higher
levels of infection, despite advancements in prevention.
Currently, Thailand has 570,000 people infected with HIV of which more
than 197,000 receive treatment from the National Access to
Antiretroviral Program for People Living with HIV/ AIDS program. Another
50,000 cases are receiving treatment from other projects.
Jourdain said that, although there has been a rapid decrease in children
infected with HIV, viral mutation remains a risk to treatment and
researchers must constantly seek to modify their programs.
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