The 25-year-old campaigner for HIV/Aids prevention said her village and nearby
Muslim communities still disapproved of condom use and some male and female
teenagers were embarrassed to buy condoms at convenience stores and would
instead ask her to seek free condoms and birth-control pills for them.
She asked health authorities to build up a network for HIV/Aids education and
help both Muslim adults and teenagers to be open-minded about the issue.
Without a change in attitude towards condom use and safe sex, HIV/Aids could
cause social problems in the southern communities in the long run, Ms
Wannakanok said.
"The government should not just only talk but it has to prove that it would
like to solve the problem of HIV/Aids infection among young people by listening
to our calls and working with us," she said.
Up to 80,000 young people in Thailand have been infected with HIV/Aids with at
least 600 new cases found each year, prompting health officials to try to
control the virus spreading among major groups with high-risk behaviour.
Public Health Minister Suchai Charoenratanakul yesterday said that he was
particularly concerned that teenagers' change of attitude towards having sexual
relationships at an early age had recently caused a drastic increase in the
level of HIV/Aids infection among this specific group.
According to the latest survey by the Bureau of Aids and Sexually Transmitted
Diseases, many students aged below the age of 17 have experienced sexual
relationships, usually one night stands, with their partners despite lacking
appropriate knowledge and understanding of safe sex.
In Thailand, half a million people are living with HIV/Aids. An estimated
20,000 people are infected with the virus each year.
The Public Health Ministry aims to reduce the number of new infections to
18,000 this year.
Katherine Bond, associate director of the Rockefeller Foundation, said that the
national budget on Aids has so far been spent on medical treatment rather than
on educating young people.
The Disease Control Department spent almost one billion baht on medical care
alone while only 50 million baht was used for prevention programmes.
She said the government as well as educational institutions should develop more
programmes and activities to create close relationship between teenagers and
parents, peers and teachers at home and at school because this would be an
effective way to combat HIV/Aids.
"If adults want to work well with teenagers on HIV/Aids prevention, they have
to let go of the power, learn to listen and ask them questions. This is so that
they can truly participate and help someone with one of the most important
social problems at the present," Ms Bond said.
