HIV/Aids Patients 'Make Wrong Choices From Fear': Bangkok Seminar

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HIV/Aids patients 'make wrong choices from fear'

The Nation

Government officials affected by HIV/Aids prefer paying for the expensive medication and treatment themselves instead of taking advantage of the almostfree welfare scheme because they do not want to lose face, a Bangkok seminar was told yesterday.

The seminar was held to mark World Aids Day, which falls on December 1 every year.

Nimit Thianudom, chief of Aids Access Foundation, said that due to this fear of losing face, many patients do not get proper treatment and are often prescribed beta medicines or concoctions improvised by their doctors instead of being given the standard antiAids formula. He added that these officials also develop resistance to drugs due to inconsistent prescriptions.

To be eligible for the government welfare scheme, which is considered better than the social security or goldcard schemes and is almost free of charge, officials need to fill in several forms identifying themselves.

The HIV/Aids situation in Thailand has improved in general in terms of medical techniques and treatments, though the efficiency of prevention measures has been below expectations and the annual average of 10,000 new patients is higher than projected.

Nimit said Thailand still needed a single agency to focus on tackling the HIV/Aids problem. At present, HIV/Aids agencies get some funding from the Global Fund, which also tackles problems with tuberculosis and malaria.

Thailand has launched a new initiative called the 3 Zeros Strategy, which stands for zero deaths from HIV/Aids, zero new patients and zero discrimination against HIV/Aids patients.

The (02) 372 2222 hotline for HIV/Aids patients has been in service for a while now but needs to be promoted further, he said.

-- The Nation 2011-11-25

[geriatrickid]

The information specifically the statement, At present, HIV/Aids agencies get some funding from the Global Fund, which also tackles problems with tuberculosis and malaria. provided in this article is misleading and insulting, " Some funding" is actuallly hundreds of millions of $US.

Reference is made to the Global Fund, the world's largest donor agency. Since 2004, Thailand has received almost US $287,000,000. from the Global Fund of which almost $200,000,000 was for HIV. The largest (and primary) receipient was the Thai Ministry of Health. Here's the list of the global fund receipients in Thailand; http://portfolio.the.../Grant/List/THA

International funding has been curtailed for multiple reasons, many of which relate to how the Thais manage the programs and the money.The Global fund has strict oversight of funds and has a zero tolerance for corruption and misappropriation of funding. The William Clinton Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and a multiple of US aid and government public health agencies along with European health agencies have given Thailand a small fortune over the past two decades. These donors have an obligation to the stakeholders to ensure that the money is spent in a transparent, ethical and honest manner that is consistent with acceptable practice.

In 2006, UNAIDS reported that Thailand's government had reduced its HIV prevention budget by two-thirds.From 2008 to 2009, the percentage of the total AIDS budget spent on prevention decreased from 21.7% to 13.7%.Don't expect donors to fall over themselves to fund programs if prevention of HIV isn't a priority. Perhaps by magical coincidence, military spending in Thailand reportedly increased at the time.

Additional background info added: http://www.avert.org/thailand-aids-hiv.htm

Edited November 25, 2011 by geriatrickid

[Yme]

I saw something yesterday that the Global Fund has suspended all further donations for two years because of corruption in Switzerland involving the misuse of funding in two African countries and that the Global Fund was replacing its director (I think its director).

That should leave a hole in the Thai funding when the current money runs out.

[katasyd]

Face is a cultural defect that drags the country down, to the point where people won't seek professional help.

So sad.