Seven public and private-sector organizations have joined forces to help curtail what is being called a “considerable” increase in Pattaya’s HIV and AIDS infection rate.
Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome and officials from the city’s Public Health and Environment and Education departments led the March 21 meeting establishing the Health and AIDS Workers Network.
Na-anya Jantrakas (right), head of the health department’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suggests improving sex education for children in all 29 Pattaya schools.
Na-anya Jantrakas, head of the health department’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the network – comprised of the Chonburi Public Health Department, Baan Rak Phuan, Duang Pratheep Foundation, the Pattaya Rak Center and AIDS groups Swing, Sister and Hon – was crated to “resolve issues aggressively as the number of HIV-infected individuals has increased considerably in Pattaya.”
Cooperation between organizations, she said, was beneficial and that city hall will help smooth the operations between the organizations “to allow swift and convenient work.”
Two reasons for the increase in HIV rates in Pattaya, officials claimed, was a lack of large condoms for foreigners and institutional discrimination against transvestites and transsexuals in everything from their mention in school textbooks to the provision of sexual education.
Health department officials said the highest rate of HIV and AIDS currently is among women-of-the-second-category prostitutes.
Network members said one of their goals would be to improve sex education for children in Pattaya schools.
