AIDS moves freely over the
Thai-Burma border
Excerpts...
"Dr. Vicharn Vitiyasai of Chiang Mai University has found that the AIDS situation in Chiang Mai is especially grave. According to his research, 72% of the prostitutes tested for Hiv who charge Baht 30-50 are infected, compared with 30% of those who charge Baht 50-100. Only 16% of those who charge more than Baht 100 are HIV-positive. But his most disturbing finding was that among prostitutes who had been in the trade for more than a year regardless of how much they charge 70% of those tested were HIV-positive.
"But such reports do not reach the prostitutes themselves; AIDS knowledge is virtually nil among the young women from Burma. Even a relatively up-market prostitute like Nang Leng says: "I've never heard of anyone here getting AIDS. I'm tested every month and there's nothing. I think somebody's trying to scare us."
"Other Shan sources in Chiang Mai say it is common for local brothel owners to approach infected women, offer them a few hundred Baht and tell them, "It's time to go home and visit your mother."
...
"Returning prostitutes have spread AIDS to Burma at an alarming rate. Unlike Thailand, Burma lacks funds, expertise and an efficient network of health workers to deal with the problem. Local hospitals are primitive and few, if any, use disposable syringes. These factors, combined with the country's role as a major drug-producer and source of recruitment for Thai prostitution rackets, make Burma the weakest link in the anti-AlDS chain in Southeast Asia.
"Burma may therefore have the highest or most rapidly growing infection rate in the region. Officially, Burma has some 30,000 registered drug addicts, but unofficial estimates by UN agencies put the actual figure at around 160,000, of whom at least half are already infected with HIV. Recently, a government health official in Rangoon privately told a UN official that his department had tested 10,000 drug addicts in the capital and found 85% of them HIV-positive."
...End of excerpts
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