HIV/AIDS in Thailand

[3][4]: 91 A 2011 report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) identified Thailand among the eleven countries in the Asia-Pacific with a majority of the world's HIV-infected people.

Money and a low level of condom use due to women's activity in the illegal sex trade are factors responsible for the spread of HIV among this group.

Finally, premarital sex, once taboo, is increasingly common among young Thais, only 20 to 30 percent of whom use condoms consistently, according to the United Nations Development Program.

[citation needed] However, since the National AIDS Control Program was moved from the Ministry of Public Health to the Office of the Prime Minister in 1991, the country's HIV/AIDS prevention efforts have been recognized[by whom?]

Thailand's policy on AIDS has worked toward educating its citizens on HIV/AIDS and prevention measures; developing a system of medical, public health, social, and consultation services to improve the quality of life of persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA); developing medical biotechnology, medicine, and AIDS vaccination research; and working with all parties involved, such as the government and private sector, to prevent and alleviate the HIV/AIDS situation.

[13] Thailand's HIV/AIDS activities include conducting a public education campaign targeting the general public and most-at-risk populations (MARPs), improving sexually transmitted infection (STI) treatment, discouraging men from visiting sex workers, promoting condom use, and requiring sex workers to receive monthly STI tests and carry records of the test results.

[13][15] The Thai sex industry has become the major focus of campaigns aimed at HIV prevention and treatment due to the perception that prostitution has been responsible for the spread of AIDS.

[4] In 2004, Thailand received a third-round grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to prevent HIV/AIDS among IDUs and increase care and support for them.

GPO will devote 2.5 percent of its manufacturing capacity to make 42 million efavirenz pills in 2018, allowing it to serve export markets as well as domestic.

The Principal Investigator of the study stated in the Lancet medical journal: "We now know that pre-exposure prophylaxis can be a potentially vital option for HIV prevention in people at very high risk for infection, whether through sexual transmission or injecting drug use.