'Mr Condom' spearheads fight against Thailand's new AIDS crisis

BANGKOK: -- Unsafe sex is being blamed for the alarming rise in HIV infections among young people, writes Lindsay Murdoch in Bangkok

Thailand's ''Mr Condom'', Mechai Viravaidya, who has saved millions of lives by raising awareness of HIV/AIDS, says his country is facing a new crisis from the infection.

''I innocently thought I had done the job … but the government has fallen asleep at the wheel. There is a total indifference to a war we have to fight,'' says the Australian-educated former politician whose 20-year campaign popularised condoms and led to a revolution in family planning and AIDS awareness in many developing countries.

''With a new campaign we can prevent a lot of early deaths,'' he says at his Birds and Bees Resort on a secluded beach near Pattaya, where restaurant diners are given free condoms.

Three hours' drive away in central Thailand, the celebrated monk Alongkot Dikkapanyo, who has seen 30,000 AIDS victims die at his hillside temple, warns that a new wave of mainly young Thais face infection. ''A big problem facing our country now is that young boys and young girls - 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 - are having sex and not protecting themselves,'' says Alongkot, who was also educated in Australia.

At least one person becomes HIV-positive every hour in Thailand, joining more than a million Thais who have been infected since the first case was reported here in 1984.

Read more: http://www.theage.co...l#ixzz2FbMpMf3N

--theage.com.au--2012-12-20

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The government has fallen asleep at the wheel.......... and now they've fled the scene.

Edited December 20, 201213 yr by bigbamboo

A word of advice, Yingluck - Don't go there!

Find some other way to help raise awareness, Please.

Edited December 20, 201213 yr by muttley

Thailand suffers from OSTRICHPHOBIA, which produces denial causing them to bury their FAT HEADS in the Sand; PEOPLE who REFUSE to Face Reality and RECOGNIZE the Truth.

A word of advice, Yingluck - Don't go there!

Find some other way to help raise awareness, Please.

Obviously he's not afraid to look a bit silly in order to get a serious message across.

At least it's something.