BANGKOK, 3 July 2012 -Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Department of Disease Control Dr. Sirisak Warintrawat has disclosed that approximately 1.58 million people in ASEAN countries are HIV positive.
In his statement during the conference of Public Health Ministers from ASEAN nations, Dr. Sirisak said that the committee overseeing HIV patients in this region has since 17 November 2011 launched a campaign, which is in line with the United Nations Protocol and the ASEAN agreement, to prevent new infections, promote equal medical treatments and prevent deaths.
Dr. Sirisak said Thailand has proposed that this campaign be implemented in Bangkok and Payao first, hoping that the two provinces would eventually become the centers of AIDS prevention by 2015.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sirisak has reported that more than 1 million people in Thailand have HIV/AIDS; 480,000 of them are still alive. 84% of those who have the disease contracted it via unprotected sex, between gay men in particular, which, from 2007-2010, account for 10.5 percent of all the patients.
