BANGKOK – Mr. Promboon Panitchpakdi, the Executive Director/ Board Member of Raks Thai Foundation and member of Care International visited NBT World and granted an exclusive interview as part of Thailand Today’s special program and joined in a video tape recording related to “A mission to end AIDS in 13 years as a tribute to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej.”
He revealed that HIV/AIDS in Thailand has been found since the last three decades. In the early days, the Thai law required that hospitals and clinics report the names of individuals who tested HIV positive to the Ministry of Public Health, and the names were occasionally leaked to the public. This often resulted in patients losing their jobs or access to education as well as being stigmatized by neighbors and friends.
Such leakages of personal information made people very afraid of the HIV testing. In order to get rid of such fear, the government set up a ‘no-name’ HIV counseling and testing facility where the names of patients could not be reported.
Mr. Promboon Panitchpakdi said that the Thais are very fortunate as Thailand is a middle-income earning country so treatment is quite available in terms of both the cost of the testing and treatments are free of charge for people who have an insurance system. The Raks Thai Foundation is a key recipient which receives funding and gives programming for partner organizations and sub-grants. This has been very effective and the roles of society is a key component to ending AIDS.
