Thailand to halve discrimination against people with HIV by 2016

BANGKOK, December 1 (TNA) - The Thai Foundation of AIDS Rights says it has targeted to reduce discrimination against people living with HIV by 50 per cent within 2016. Supattra Nakapew, Director of the Thai Foundation of AIDS Rights, announced the foundation’s target on the occasion of the World AIDS Day Saturday, saying that many HIV-positive people in Thailand still face discrimination in education and employment and rights violations. Supattra told journalists that among 233 HIV-positive people surveyed by the foundation this year, 26 per cent of them have been denied jobs because they carry the disease, 32 per cent have lost their jobs and income because of the same reason and 47 per cent have suffered from rights violations. To achieve the target, Supattra acknowledged that her foundation will conduct a campaign against discrimination against HIV-positive people in pre-employment blood tests and against a HIV testing requirement at schools. It will also seek government’s support to install more condom vending machines and to help promote public understanding and tolerance toward people living with HIV. Meanwhile, the Thai Red Cross Society has urged HIV-positive people to undergo HIV testing more regularly or at least twice a year to prevent any reinfection. According to the Thai Red Cross Society, Thailand now records two new HIV cases in every hour and it is optimistic that, with continued campaigns, HIV/AIDS infection rates in the country should be reduced to two new cases a day in the future. In Thailand, HIV infections are most worrying among homosexual men, or men who have sex with men, with one-third of people in this group found to have infected with the sexually-transmitted disease; while HIV/AIDS infection rates for general men and women in the country have stood only at two per cent and the rates among prostitutes have come down to 7 per cent. (TNA)