Fighting HIV/AIDS in Thailand

The Thai Ministry of Public Health estimates that by the end of 2001 more than one million people had been infected with HIV, of whom more than 340,000 had died. In spite of the government’s aggressive attempts to contain the virus and its commitment to expand access to care and treatment, the economic crisis of the late 1990s eroded Thailand’s ability to sustain many innovative programs that had established new standards for treatment and prevention around the world.

Global Fund grants of more than US$50 million over two years will permit the scale-up of a number of highly successful programs to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. In partnership with people living with the virus, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and other government agencies, the Ministry of Public Health will:

• Initiate programs to increase the knowledge about safe sex behavior among young people between the ages of 12 to 18 in schools, universities and vocational training centers;
• Introduce programs to prevent HIV/AIDS for out-of-school youth and young adults in the workplace, juvenile centers and prisons throughout Thailand;
• Expand its current antiretroviral treatment program by doubling the number of health-care facilities offering these essential drugs—resulting in an increase of 8,000 people on antiretroviral therapy after the first year, with a 2004 target of 50,000 people nationwide, 20 percent of whom will be financed by the Global Fund; and
• Extend its program to prevent motherto- child transmission to increase the number of HIV-infected mothers and their partners receiving antiretroviral drugs by 9,000 within two years.

The Global Fund will also support the work of a large number of non-governmental organizations already engaged in issues surrounding HIV and migration. Thailand hosts many migrant workers from neighboring countries, who are often vulnerable to HIV. Through a large-scale education and advocacy program, a number of community-based organizations will help migrant workers and their families gain access to comprehensive health services. The organizations will work with the government to develop policies to sustain this access and to decrease the stigmatization which migrant workers presently experience.

In addition, financing from the Global Fund will directly support the Thai Business Coalition on AIDS, which is working with private companies to provide HIV-prevention education to their workforces.

With nearly US$6 million disbursed by the Global Fund to the Ministry of Public Health and the Raks Thai Foundation, partners in Thailand have already developed communication materials and curricula for the youth education program. The Ministry of Public Health has begun its review of policies regarding antiretroviral service delivery at all levels and has established a system to strengthen, supervise and monitor the management of its procurement and supply chain in anticipation of large-scale treatment services that will soon be in place.