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.
Pra-ornsuda Sukrakanchana (left), coordinator of the PHPT research project, looks on as Gonzague Jourdain (right), speaks to local health workers at City Hall.
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.
