Thailand hits party scene to combat rising HIV among gay men

[webfact]

Thailand hits party scene to combat rising HIV among gay men
BY ALISA TANG

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Bare-chested male models strutted through the glitzy ballroom in Bangkok to the beat of house music while dozens of young gay men waited anxiously, working up the nerve to have a blood test.

The mostly female health team taking samples seemed incongruous next to the shirtless models circling the party, but the health workers' presence at the TestBKK event, Thailand's first mass HIV testing for gays, was sending a powerful message.

Over the past decade, HIV has spread rapidly among gay men, transgender people and male sex workers in Bangkok to reach epidemic levels, fueled partly by greater use of illicit party drugs that make people less cautious about sex, experts said.

Once touted as an HIV success story, Thailand is now faced with infection rates in its gay population comparable to those in Africa's AIDS hot spots.

Waking up to the scale of the problem, Thai authorities have embarked on a campaign to raise awareness about HIV and encourage testing among those most at risk: men who have sex with men and transgender people.

Full story: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/06/us-foundation-thailand-hiv-idUSKCN0HV00320141006

-- Reuters 2014-10-06

[Costas2008]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Costas2008

[Bernard Flint]

Now will all you so called hetros that think u arent bisexual;, stop going with blokes in dresses.

[isanbirder]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

HIV was widespread among gays in Thailand in the early 90s, but a great deal was done then to raise awareness, particularly among sex workers.

As tends to happen in Thailand, the pressure died down, and clearly things have been getting worse again. I would be surprised if things are as bad as in Africa's HIV hot spots.... but better safe than sorry.

[soalbundy]

I bet they wont ''come out'' so quickly that they have aids. Promiscuity has a price, it's their choice.

[sustento]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

Mr Condom was doing HIV awareness in Thailand in the 90s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechai_Viravaidya#cite_note-1

[Scott]

Off-topic, inflammatory posts and replies have been removed.

[coppywriter]

I bet they wont ''come out'' so quickly that they have aids. Promiscuity has a price, it's their choice.

Please remember that being HIV positive is not the same as having Aids. If you are diagnosed as being HIV positive early enough and start to take the available meds then it is highly unlikely (though possible) that you will progress to getting Aids.

Edited October 6, 2014 by coppywriter

[ScotBkk]

Yes, dont want to catch that again ....

Sorry joking LOL !!

[ggt]

There are no winners in the HIV...VD...problem which plagues Thailand and many other countries...

The easy access to sex workers...and the willingness of men and women to experiment with both sexes...is a recipe for disaster...

All people who indulge themselves in this industry are at risk...not just gays...

Get yourself tested...and your partner...practice safe sex until you do!

[Jingthing]

There are no winners in the HIV...VD...problem which plagues Thailand and many other countries...

The easy access to sex workers...and the willingness of men and women to experiment with both sexes...is a recipe for disaster...

All people who indulge themselves in this industry are at risk...not just gays...

Get yourself tested...and your partner...practice safe sex until you do!

Exclusive lesbians are VERY low risk.

[cbluck58]

Not forgetting of course that, as with all medical crises , the more cases you declare , the more money you get from the WHO to deal with it most of which is never spent on the poor bastards that make up the numbers.

Huge sympathy for any person contracting any kind of terminal illness or disease whether to not it is a result of their behavioural patterns or simply through ignorance - a death sentence is still a death sentence and the more public awareness and efforts to prevent senseless early deaths , the better - and I don't care what their sexual orientation is, I am confident enough of my own not to feel threatened or afraid of others.

[Jingthing]

HIV can be medically managed these days like many other chronic diseases. It's highly undesirable but hardly the "death sentence" it used to be.

[onthemoon]

The "death sentence" you get when you are born.

I know several HIV positive guys, and they have to take medicine, probably for the rest of their lives. Very much like the friends that are diabetics.

[saakura]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

If you were really well informed or well read, you would know that Thailand was among the few countries which raised awareness about AIDS and acheived great success very early on in the nineties. They just got complacent and slackened off.

[Rumblecat]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

What are you talking about? They haven't just started here, in fact there was a huge (and relatively successful) push in the nineties to increase awareness. Arguably there's been a complacency in recent years in informing and making sure the younger generation are aware- but to say Thailand "has just started" is utterly ignorant.

[Wat dee]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

If you were really well informed or well read, you would know that Thailand was among the few countries which raised awareness about AIDS and acheived great success very early on in the nineties. They just got complacent and slackened off.

Pretty much the same in the west.

[snooky]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

What are you talking about? They haven't just started here, in fact there was a huge (and relatively successful) push in the nineties to increase awareness. Arguably there's been a complacency in recent years in informing and making sure the younger generation are aware- but to say Thailand "has just started" is utterly ignorant.

In the nineties, almost every entertainment venue that I went to, straight or gay, had posters of one kind or another in all of their bathrooms urging people to use condoms and not perform extremely risky sex. There were also bar owners who took their workers to get tested every so often - not today. Also, the bars 20 some odd years ago, owners made sure they gave their employees a supply of condoms whenever they went out with a customer. Most venue owners are too 'keeneo' to do either practice now.

Today there seem to be few of these informational posters (if any), the excuse given by the owners that if they post these messages, they are more or less admitting to running this type of business. The police then see them and then either close them down for being in the sex business (or more likely) raise their monthly 'tea' fines to the extreme. Catch 22 as usual. Everybody knows these venues exist, whether legal or not, so why not allow posters to be put up, advising on such things as condoms, HIV and relevant material. Plus literature should be given out to all the workers in these places, especially on their way out with their customers.

[Thai at Heart]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

Mr Condom was doing HIV awareness in Thailand in the 90s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechai_Viravaidya#cite_note-1

Without him, Thailand would probably be like southern Africa by now. He genuinely deserves every gong in the book.

[cup-O-coffee]

Apparently Koh Tao is not the only killer in Thailand. So many people come here thinking "It can't happen to me" but forget that they are coming here to escape the things they can't do openly and at all hours in their own country without complications.

The awareness campaigns, I think, are a waste. People are aware. They get it. The thing is, they have made up their minds and nothing is going to change that. It is the responsibility of the police to reduce the crime rate. It should also be the responsibility of the homosexual community to reduce what is now being recognized as an epidemic. I understand that even heterosexuals contract this disease, but I am not going to get into how that happens, and after all, read the headline. This disease exists, but where it exists the most and where it is proliferating the most is the issue that no one wants to openly address without being accuses as being homophobic. Funny that it is primarily heterosexuals in the medical profession who are trying to control this.

I wonder how many homosexual and lesbian doctors and nurses are volunteering full time to help their community fight this disease. After all, it is their community, right? Or are they turning the other cheek and putting on the blinders. They show up for the parades, but don't show up at the clinics and laboratories. I also wonder how many heterosexual doctors and nurses are putting in all the time to reduce this epidemic and the homosexual and lesbian community are not giving them any thanks at all. Does the homosexual and lesbian community feel entitled and think the heterosexual community should use up all their time to find cures for this, and take away from finding cures for cancer and leukemia and other diseases that affect all peoples?

I also wonder if this is going to be the price we all have to pay to afford the sexual lifestyles of the homosexual community. Yes, I understand that this disease exists in the heterosexual and also the drug abusing community, but read the headlines and please do not divert attention away from the issue at hand. Heterosexuals contract this disease primarily from bad transfusions or other oversights that slip through the safety protocols, yes? Needle users are not exactly the model citizen examples that we all want to imitate or use as a standard for our children yes?

So the thing is, the homosexual and lesbian community are all in league and fight together for other causes, and I think they all should fight together to resolve this cause as much as the others. But if, in my view, the homosexual and lesbian community want to be considered an equal part of society and exact the same privileges and rights, then they need to do everything within their power to fight this disease that seems to centralize within their rank and file. Half-assed "awareness" campaigns are not going to do the job, simply because the numbers are getting more difficult to hide and will continue to be more difficult in the years to come if the behavior they want us to accept continues to breed what is now called an epidemic.

So, at the moment, the homosexual lobby is (by any other name) bribing politicians to pass hate laws and anti discrimination laws and marriage laws and adoption laws that DO NOT pass through the heterosexual community for approval and invariably take advantage of the apathetic and slow to awaken consciousness of the heterosexual community. Yeah yeah, whatever! The fast track can get laws passed quickly, and making heterosexuals afraid of being prosecuted or hauled off to court for saying something or thinking something might work for a little while, but read the headline of the OP.

Your "community" is bringing along with it a very ugly problem that is not going away. I can say with confidence that the views and feeling I have expressed in this post are very similar to what a lot of other heterosexuals experience in their own thoughts and feelings.

Yet I wonder what the backlash will be. Will it be that my post gets treated as an attack, or the views of a bigot or racist or as being "homophobic"?

Whatever the case may be, I am not typing this to attack or offend or anything like that. I am simply typing this to point out an area of responsibility to a group of people whom I feel are being extremely irresponsible and just plain stupid, and rather instead letting everyone else (heterosexuals) clean up their mess whilst suffering the burdens and consequences of it; "it" being an epidemic... and what part of epidemic do you not understand? Is "epidemic" now going to be a "fashionable" phrase from now on, just like "gay" used to mean "happy"?

Anyway, I am not against you, but I do have my limits when someone comes into the room and brings the bad weather with them and expects me to lower my standard of living for it.

OK, jingthing, bring it on, LOL.

[Rumblecat]

Well, I'm part of your so-called 'hetrosexual community' and I can tell you that you're talking ill-informed rubbish. Right from the start where you say awareness is a waste of time, down to your rankly bizarre assertion that heterosexuals in the main only ever get HIV from bad transfusions or 'oversights'- actually it's heterosexual sex that's the main cause of transmission. Yup, it even outstrips those pesky gays who you were so keen to be shouldering sole responsibility for this disease.

There's an odd assumption at the base of your post that gay people shouldn't have the same privilege and rights as heterosexuals- so you're starting from the viewpoint that they are second classes citizens, and should be denied basic rights.

Personally a decent standard for children would be one of compassion, understanding and an ability to process facts and avoid knee-jerk reactions. That whole bit did raise a genuine laugh though, it's been a while since someone went down the whole ​won't somebody think of the children..! route- so thanks for that.

So the thing is, the homosexual and lesbian community are all in league and fight together for other causes, and I think they all should fight together to resolve this cause as much as the others. But if, in my view, the homosexual and lesbian community want to be considered an equal part of society and exact the same privileges and rights, then they need to do everything within their power to fight this disease that seems to centralize within their rank and file. Half-assed "awareness" campaigns are not going to do the job, simply because the numbers are getting more difficult to hide and will continue to be more difficult in the years to come if the behavior they want us to accept continues to breed what is now called an epidemic.

So, at the moment, the homosexual lobby is (by any other name) bribing politicians to pass hate laws and anti discrimination laws and marriage laws and adoption laws that DO NOT pass through the heterosexual community for approval and invariably take advantage of the apathetic and slow to awaken consciousness of the heterosexual community. Yeah yeah, whatever! The fast track can get laws passed quickly, and making heterosexuals afraid of being prosecuted or hauled off to court for saying something or thinking something might work for a little while, but read the headline of the OP.

Your "community" is bringing along with it a very ugly problem that is not going away. I can say with confidence that the views and feeling I have expressed in this post are very similar to what a lot of other heterosexuals experience in their own thoughts and feelings.

Yet I wonder what the backlash will be. Will it be that my post gets treated as an attack, or the views of a bigot or racist or as being "homophobic"?

I think your post, like so many of your ThaiVisa posts, will be treated like it usually is- the slightly odd ramblings of a fairly unintelligent man. I'm not entirely convinced you're for real, having seen some of your other posts (where the astonishing lack of comprehension borders on artful trolling)- so if you are, as I suspect, a fake profile designed to wind people up, fair play- you're doing well.

[Jingthing]

...

OK, jingthing, bring it on, LOL.

Troll bait not taken. Don't bother trying again.

[onthemoon]

While in the other world, HIV awareness has been conducted from many years ago and is still going on, in Thailand they just started.................

Well.......better late than never......as they say.

What are you talking about? They haven't just started here, in fact there was a huge (and relatively successful) push in the nineties to increase awareness. Arguably there's been a complacency in recent years in informing and making sure the younger generation are aware- but to say Thailand "has just started" is utterly ignorant.

In the nineties, almost every entertainment venue that I went to, straight or gay, had posters of one kind or another in all of their bathrooms urging people to use condoms and not perform extremely risky sex. There were also bar owners who took their workers to get tested every so often - not today. Also, the bars 20 some odd years ago, owners made sure they gave their employees a supply of condoms whenever they went out with a customer. Most venue owners are too 'keeneo' to do either practice now.

Today there seem to be few of these informational posters (if any), the excuse given by the owners that if they post these messages, they are more or less admitting to running this type of business. The police then see them and then either close them down for being in the sex business (or more likely) raise their monthly 'tea' fines to the extreme. Catch 22 as usual. Everybody knows these venues exist, whether legal or not, so why not allow posters to be put up, advising on such things as condoms, HIV and relevant material. Plus literature should be given out to all the workers in these places, especially on their way out with their customers.

Free condoms and lubes used to be distributed by the city government - at least in Pattaya. If not any more, I would say it's both the boy's as well as the customer's responsibility, I cannot understand why either of them would risk their lives for the experience.

[snooky]

I totally agree with you, however management should also partake in the responsibility area by posting signs and having their workers tested. But then, whatever its financial cost, I cannot see very many bar owners willing to be worried about either their workers nor their customers.except for their own gains.