Hiv/arv And Thailand

[sua yai]

A Thai friend of mine was diagnosed HIV positive 4 years ago. She was infected by an old Thai boyfriend. He is now unfortunately dead.

Her first CD4 count was around 400. Two years later it had dropped to 40. Her future looked pretty bleak.

However, with a change in medication, her latest count has improved to over 650. When she first was taking ARV drugs, the medication was costing her 3,000 Baht a month. A huge sum for a Thai. It now costs her 30 Baht a month.

Bearing in mind Mr. T's address to the recent HIV summit in Bangkok, I have been appalled to read recent press reports that Thailand is seriously considering signing an agreement with The States to stop producing these drugs here and therefore protect the "investments" made by the pharmaceutical giants.

Does anyone feel the same way? And, more to the point, in reality is there anything anyone can do to stop this potential madness?

[monkeygirl]

i'm disgusted by the relationship between the US and Thailand. the US is a bully and doesn't care who is left in the wake of its maddening path, whether it is its own people or those of another country.

[IamMaiC]

i'm disgusted by the relationship between the US and Thailand. the US is a bully and doesn't care who is left in the wake of its maddening path, whether it is its own people or those of another country.

i wonder how come millions come to live on the bully's land though please don't mix the government with the US people monkeygirl.

[phormio]

A Thai friend of mine was diagnosed HIV positive 4 years ago. She was infected by an old Thai boyfriend. He is now unfortunately dead.

Her first CD4 count was around 400. Two years later it had dropped to 40. Her future looked pretty bleak.

However, with a change in medication, her latest count has improved to over 650. When she first was taking ARV drugs, the medication was costing her 3,000 Baht a month. A huge sum for a Thai. It now costs her 30 Baht a month.

Bearing in mind Mr. T's address to the recent HIV summit in Bangkok, I have been appalled to read recent press reports that Thailand is seriously considering signing an agreement with The States to stop producing these drugs here and therefore protect the "investments" made by the pharmaceutical giants.

Does anyone feel the same way? And, more to the point, in reality is there anything anyone can do to stop this potential madness?

Last I heard, there were about 700,000 HIV positive Thais. I find it hard to believe that the Thai govt. would leave these people in the lurch - dieing because they can't afford the drugs. There are other sources of the drugs - for instance India. A company called Cipla produced antiretroviral drugs and got into court battles with big Pharma. If the Thai govt is going to prevent the production of cheap life-saving medicines in country, one would hope there would be one he11 of a stink about it.

[monkeygirl]

i'm disgusted by the relationship between the US and Thailand. the US is a bully and doesn't care who is left in the wake of its maddening path, whether it is its own people or those of another country.

i wonder how come millions come to live on the bully's land though please don't mix the government with the US people monkeygirl.

heck, i'm a us citizen exercising my right to disagree with the government!

[IamMaiC]

i'm disgusted by the relationship between the US and Thailand. the US is a bully and doesn't care who is left in the wake of its maddening path, whether it is its own people or those of another country.

i wonder how come millions come to live on the bully's land though please don't mix the government with the US people monkeygirl.

heck, i'm a us citizen exercising my right to disagree with the government!

Ohhh excuse me then yes you have that right but don't be too hard on the goverment they do try sometimes

[Coffee Dude]

I have been appalled to read recent press reports that Thailand is seriously considering signing an agreement with The States to stop producing these drugs here and therefore protect the "investments" made by the pharmaceutical giants.

Does anyone feel the same way? And, more to the point, in reality is there anything anyone can do to stop this potential madness?

That is a horrible thought and may well be based fact. I would also like, to be fair with USA, to know if any of the families of the powers to be here in Thailand have motivation to support such a thing.

VOTE!!! If you can.

Coffee!!!

[IamMaiC]

A Thai friend of mine was diagnosed HIV positive 4 years ago. She was infected by an old Thai boyfriend. He is now unfortunately dead.

Her first CD4 count was around 400. Two years later it had dropped to 40. Her future looked pretty bleak.

However, with a change in medication, her latest count has improved to over 650. When she first was taking ARV drugs, the medication was costing her 3,000 Baht a month. A huge sum for a Thai. It now costs her 30 Baht a month.

Bearing in mind Mr. T's address to the recent HIV summit in Bangkok, I have been appalled to read recent press reports that Thailand is seriously considering signing an agreement with The States to stop producing these drugs here and therefore protect the "investments" made by the pharmaceutical giants.

Does anyone feel the same way? And, more to the point, in reality is there anything anyone can do to stop this potential madness?

Last I heard, there were about 700,000 HIV positive Thais. I find it hard to believe that the Thai govt. would leave these people in the lurch - dieing because they can't afford the drugs. There are other sources of the drugs - for instance India. A company called Cipla produced antiretroviral drugs and got into court battles with big Pharma. If the Thai govt is going to prevent the production of cheap life-saving medicines in country, one would hope there would be one he11 of a stink about it.

I saw recently a program on HBO don't know how accurate it is showed a Thai woman She originally was a massage girl didn't do anything extra for the customers but then she got advice from friends they told her work in bar you make more money than just do massage.

They showed a picture of her when the program started I never seen a Thai woman so beautiful as her, So she went and worked in one of the bars and contracted aids, They showed her later on after the disease was doing damage to her body. She looked like a totally different person

She was in some place that took care of AIDS patients but she wanted to be with her family She had a son also They lived in issan somewhere, They showed her going back to see her family and they were shocked at what they saw.

Her Father had his reservations about why she was making so much money just doing massages, She had sent 10,000 baht to them once. The remainder of the show showed her gradually getting worse until she died. very sad. her son was only 9 yrs old Had a father but no idea where he was.

They also showed on the program another place where they kept aids patients One person talking to the film crew explained that those peoples families just dropped them off there and left.

[sua yai]

A Thai friend of mine was diagnosed HIV positive 4 years ago. She was infected by an old Thai boyfriend. He is now unfortunately dead.

Her first CD4 count was around 400. Two years later it had dropped to 40. Her future looked pretty bleak.

However, with a change in medication, her latest count has improved to over 650. When she first was taking ARV drugs, the medication was costing her 3,000 Baht a month. A huge sum for a Thai. It now costs her 30 Baht a month.

Bearing in mind Mr. T's address to the recent HIV summit in Bangkok, I have been appalled to read recent press reports that Thailand is seriously considering signing an agreement with The States to stop producing these drugs here and therefore protect the "investments" made by the pharmaceutical giants.

Does anyone feel the same way? And, more to the point, in reality is there anything anyone can do to stop this potential madness?

Last I heard, there were about 700,000 HIV positive Thais. I find it hard to believe that the Thai govt. would leave these people in the lurch - dieing because they can't afford the drugs. There are other sources of the drugs - for instance India. A company called Cipla produced antiretroviral drugs and got into court battles with big Pharma. If the Thai govt is going to prevent the production of cheap life-saving medicines in country, one would hope there would be one he11 of a stink about it.

Thanks for your replies. However, I'm afraid that the govt will be more interested in perpetuating the myth of prosperity, rather than thinking about their own people.

As far as fact is concerned, take a look at Bangkok Post archives over the past month or so.

[ProThaiExpat]

Welcome to the "Land of Announcements". In the past month, I have read the following

1. Thailand is doubling the size of its government owned pharaceutical company so it can make the one pill a day coctail tablet availabe to other southeast asia countries.

2. The U.S. is currently evaluating the three in one-once a day pill so that it can be bought by the U.S. under Bush's aids program for distribution in Africa.

3. Thailand is now manufacturing enough hiv cocktail once a day pills for distribution to about half of the infected population of Thailand.

4. Coctail hiv anti-viral pills are available from any state hospital if you are willing to pay 1200 baht a month.

Etc.

[mbkudu]

Thailand is seriously considering signing an agreement with The States to stop producing these drugs here and therefore protect the "investments" made by the pharmaceutical giants.

One of the big arguments that US pharmaceutical companies use is that it costs them millions to develope these drugs. This is a lot of crap however.

Nearly all the research and development costs for these drugs is paid for by the US

government which is employed by, you guessed it, US taxpaying citizens and working foreign residents. So if we are paying for it, we should have a say in how the drugs are distributed. Fat chance.

[chuchok]

mbkudu,

easy to say, but what would you think if a company/country had your life in their hands??..and maybe through no fault of your own!

[Pepe']

i'm disgusted by the relationship between the US and Thailand. the US is a bully and doesn't care who is left in the wake of its maddening path, whether it is its own people or those of another country.

Did you figure this out all by yourself?

[Ice Treasure]

i'm disgusted by the relationship between the US and Thailand. the US is a bully and doesn't care who is left in the wake of its maddening path, whether it is its own people or those of another country.

Did you figure this out all by yourself?

I adore well apportioned sarcasm...good one Doctor Pepe.

[mbkudu]

mbkudu,

easy to say, but what would you think if a company/country had your life in their hands??..and maybe through no fault of your own!

Chuck, I think the main point I am trying to make is that there is no justification for the huge cost of medicines in the US because much of the R and D that they claim costs them so much is actually performed in government sponsored universities that rely on tax money that Americans pay. So if Americans are paying for it through taxes then why is it so expensive?