assumed a prominent role in the management of the epidemic.
In 1991, the Prime Minister chaired the National
Aids Prevention and Control Committee and implemented the '100% Condom
Campaign'. All brothels are registered in Thailand, which made it relatively
easy to instigate this programme.
A man presenting at a clinic with a sexually-transmitted disease would
be asked where he contracted the disease. If he named a brothel, the brothel
would be contacted and if it did not comply with the campaign, it could
be closed down. The relative success of this campaign has been due to
its concentration on making condom use the norm, rather than trying to
stamp out prostitution.
Treatment is a more difficult matter than prevention in
page 3 of 4
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Thailand. Antiretroviral drugs are expensive and most people cannot
afford them. This is despite the fact that Thailand is now producing five
out of the 15 or so antiretrovirals available in Western countries, locally.
The problem is not just a lack of drugs, but also the lack of medical
infrastructure necessary to perform the complex monitoring of virus mutations
which necessitates new drug regimes. Apart from that, there is the difficulty
of getting patients to adhere to strict drug regimes.
Because of these problems, the hope of a 'miracle cure' arose. A substance
called
V1 (it sounds more like a rocket than a drug!) developed by a local pharmacologist has been given wide publicity in Thailand: 10,000 people
