Bangkok Hotel Segregates Guests With Hiv

[george]

Bangkok Hotel Segregates Guests With HIV

BANGKOK: -- Activists were up in arms Thursday after a Bangkok hotel hosting an AIDS workshop moved all the participants - half of them HIV positive - to one floor, asked them to eat in a separate area, and told cleaning staff to take precautions.

The incident, which took place earlier in the week, happened just a month before the Thai capital is to host the 15th International AIDS Conference that is expected to be attended by more than 10,000 participants.

Some 70 Thai government officials, voluntary agency workers and people with HIV/AIDS in the workshop were initially given rooms on various floors when they checked into the Prince Palace Hotel on Sunday, said Nimit Tienudom, head of AIDS Access, an advocacy group.

But when hotel officials realized that some of the people had AIDS because of skin lesions, they moved everybody to one floor the next day, he told The Associated Press.

They were also asked to eat in a separate dining area.

"It was like they were placed in a zoning area," said Nimit, who had spoken to organizers of the workshop, which was co-sponsored by the government.

"This reflects the ignorance of Thai society in the matter of living with (people with HIV) and how it is contracted," Nimit said.

The participants, however, didn't want to create a fuss, and the incident was first reported by The Nation newspaper on Thursday.

Hotel officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they were acting in the interest of their other guests. They also said they instructed cleaning staff to take precautions.

"We were just scared the other guests would be alarmed," said a front desk manager said, adding it was normal practice in hotels to give conference participants a private dining area.

However, the manager also said the organizers should not have invited people with AIDS. And even if they did, "they should have told us about it so that we could have prepared for them," he said without elaborating.

He cited last year's SARS outbreak when hotel guests were avoiding others from areas hardest hit by the respiratory disease such as Taiwan.

"When guests saw guests from other countries, from Taiwan, they would be really alarmed," he said.

An official from the government's Communicable Diseases Control Department said about half of the 70 participants at the workshop were infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The official, who declined to give her name, said the CDC and Public Health Ministry have not yet taken action against the hotel.

--AP 2004-06-17

[PvtDick]

Wait a minute...I thought one of our illustrious moderators told us all that it was ILLEGAL for HIV-positive individuals to enter the country...now we've got a whole hotel full of them? How could it be?

[Connor McCloud]

they breed

[eric1000]

Wait a minute...I thought one of our illustrious moderators told us all that it was ILLEGAL for HIV-positive individuals to enter the country...now we've got a whole hotel full of them? How could it be?

and will they be spreading it about in the red light areas ? scary ...

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Wait a minute...I thought one of our illustrious moderators told us all that it was ILLEGAL for HIV-positive individuals to enter the country...now we've got a whole hotel full of them? How could it be?

Didn't you bid us a fond permanent farewell ?

[PvtDick]

Didn't you bid us a fond permanent farewell ?

I'm baaaaack...and still waiting for an apology.

[konangrit]

I don't know. It's easy to say that this is wrong, but they accomodated the HIV visitors and let them stay in the hotel. If they had skin lesions then I think they made the right decision to give them a seperate dining area. Whilst westerners may be more aware of the risks of catching HIV most would still not like to dine with people in the later stages of infection. I personally would not like to eat my bacon sandwich with someone who resembled my meal infront of me.

Shallow? Yes.

Good business sense? Yes

[Connor McCloud]

Didn't you bid us a fond permanent farewell ?

It must be Doc hunting season

You can run but you cannot hide

Go on Doc , kick him in the nads

[PvtDick]

I don't know. It's easy to say that this is wrong, but they accomodated the HIV visitors and let them stay in the hotel. If they had skin lesions then I think they made the right decision to give them a seperate dining area. Whilst westerners may be more aware of the risks of catching HIV most would still not like to dine with people in the later stages of infection. I personally would not like to eat my bacon sandwich with someone who resembled my meal infront of me.

Shallow? Yes.

Good business sense? Yes

You obviously don't know much about HIV infection. Someone who looks like your meal is not going to be jaunting around the globe staying in hotels and attending conferences. They are going to be in a hospital or hospice on their deathbeds.

I guarantee that you would not be able to tell by looking at any of these people that they harbored the virus. And I think we all agree that there is absolutely zero risk to other hotel guests or staff by allowing them to stay there. Don't we? Please say yes.

[konangrit]

I don't know. It's easy to say that this is wrong, but they accomodated the HIV visitors and let them stay in the hotel. If they had skin lesions then I think they made the right decision to give them a seperate dining area. Whilst westerners may be more aware of the risks of catching HIV most would still not like to dine with people in the later stages of infection. I personally would not like to eat my bacon sandwich with someone who resembled my meal infront of me.

Shallow? Yes.

Good business sense? Yes

You obviously don't know much about HIV infection. Someone who looks like your meal is not going to be jaunting around the globe staying in hotels and attending conferences. They are going to be in a hospital or hospice on their deathbeds.

I guarantee that you would not be able to tell by looking at any of these people that they harbored the virus. And I think we all agree that there is absolutely zero risk to other hotel guests or staff by allowing them to stay there. Don't we? Please say yes.

I agree zero risk, me and you realise that. How many customers don't? From a business point of view it makes sense for them to eat in a seperate dining area.

OK, fair enough, maybe my comment about bacon sandwiches was a bit insulting and uninformed, but it was made in reply to the following quote from the article:

But when hotel officials realized that some of the people had AIDS because of skin lesions, they moved everybody to one floor the next day, he told The Associated Press.

I have to admit again that I'm in the wrong here as the statement doesn't really make sense, how could someone have AIDS because of skin lesions? Still the article seems to imply that some of the guests had skin lesions. I have never seen this on a sufferer of HIV, but I assumed that the article was acurate.

Anyway, I stand by my original statement that this was good business sense, but I withdraw the insensitive and offensive bacon remark.

A point left out by both of us and the original report is that anyone who shows symptons of HIV actually has AIDS. Whereas somebody who does not show any symptons does not have AIDS but does carry the HIV. The report did however say that there were people with AIDS, so I must assume that they had symptons, be that skin lesions or whatever.

My appologies for treating a very serious disease insensitively,

Konangrit

[NedKelly]

.......

I have to admit again that I'm in the wrong here as the statement doesn't really make sense, how could someone have AIDS because of skin lesions? Still the article seems to imply that some of the guests had skin lesions. I have never seen this on a sufferer of HIV, but I assumed that the article was acurate.

I thinks it's called somehting like karposy's sarcoma....and it is common in people with HIV/Aids.

There is a Worldwide HIV conference coming up soon in Bangkok......guaranteed that there will be some with HIV attending. If Thailand tries to stop them it will be a sad case of bad publicity indeed and a blight on Thailand.

[NedKelly]

Eric1000...and will they be spreading it about in the red light areas ? scary ...

What......you think this is not already the case. Its not these people that are the worry.

[bangsaen bob]

Maybe they should look at www.aidsmyth.com Why have an aids meeting when there is no such thing.

[astral]

Wait a minute...I thought one of our illustrious moderators told us all that it was ILLEGAL for HIV-positive individuals to enter the country...now we've got a whole hotel full of them?  How could it be?

I checked on this and the rule only seems to apply if you want a long term visa extension, or a work permit.

My own thought was how good it was to see the Health Ministry taking a sensible line.

I wondered why they don't educate the immigration dept.

PS

AIDS = skin lesions - not necessarily true

Skin lesions = AIDS - not necessarily true either

Edited June 21, 2004 by astral