Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese
Date:         Thu, 7 Jan 1993 17:10:59 -0500
              USENET." <VIETNET@USCVM.BITNET>
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      NEWS/VN: VN looks to Thailand for strategies to counter AIDS

01/02


Vietnam Looks to Thailand for Strategies to Counter AIDS
 By Mary Kay Magistad
 Special to The Washington Post

   HANOI - As Vietnam begins to grapple with its growing AIDS problem,
officials here are hoping to learn from the experiences of a Southeast Asian
neighbor, Thailand.
   "So far, many people . . . think AIDS is not a big problem in Vietnam," Vice
Premier Nguyen Khanh said recently at Vietnam's first national seminar on AIDS.
"This is very dangerous and may constitute a great obstacle to the strategy
against HIV and AIDS in our country."
   Like Vietnam is doing now, Thailand first sought to downplay the AIDS
epidemic in their country. Now Thai officials have adopted an aggressive
awareness campaign, including "Captain Condom" - a fellow in blue lycra tights
and red cape - who bounds into nightclubs and massage parlors, passing out free
condoms to bikini-clad bar girls.
   "Learn from our mistakes," Mechai Viravaidya, the architect of Thailand's
current campaign, told the audience of Vietnamese health officials in Hanoi.
"React early, react strong, and the problem will be small. But do like my
country, reacting late and weak, and the problem is so, so big."
   Looking at official statistics, Vietnam seems to have one of the lowest
rates of HIV prevalence in Asia. Of almost 130,000 people tested, only 79
were HIV-positive.
   But this is not an accurate picture, say Vietnamese and Western officials
who work on the issue. Privately, they criticize the government's practice of
testing low-risk groups, such as elderly people and monks, so the ratio of
HIV-positive cases would stay low.
   Just four years ago, Thailand's government was similarly wary about
discussing the extent of Thailand's AIDS epidemic. Riding high on a wave of
double-digit economic growth, many Thai officials feared that an AIDS awareness
campaign would scare away tourists and foreign investors.
   In December 1988, the Thai Public Health Ministry said the total number of
HIV-positive cases was 2,264, and stressed that most were drug addicts.
   Now, Thai officials are much more candid. Some estimate that about 500,000
Thais are HIV-positive, with another 1,200 becoming infected every day.
   "If we are unable to slow down this epidemic, Thailand will have 4 million
people infected with HIV by the year 2000. By then, almost a million will have
already died and one in three funerals will be AIDS-related," said Mechai.
   Like Thailand, Vietnam has many prostitutes and needle-injecting drug users.
Unlike Thailand, which gets about 5 million foreign visitors each year, Vietnam
has been relatively isolated since the war ended in 1975.
   But there is no time for complacency, Mechai warned. Vietnam has already
opened up to tourism and commerce, with almost a million visitors last year,
according to Vietnamese statistics. Many visitors came from countries where
AIDS is prevalent - including Thailand.
   Vietnamese officials say all but eight of the 79 people who tested
HIV-positive in Vietnam were Thai fishermen. But the Vietnamese prostitutes who
may have had sex with many of these men have not been tested, nor have other
Vietnamese in high-risk categories.
   "We realize that these 79 cases are just the tip of the iceberg," said Le
Dien Hong, vice chairman of Vietnam's National AIDS Committee. "So we are
already mobilizing our resources to inform people about AIDS."
   But some Hanoi-based Western aid workers say Vietnam's National Aids
Committee is still portraying AIDS as a disease passed on only by foreigners,
drug addicts and prostitutes - lulling others into a false sense of security.
   "The Vietnamese government seems to be encouraging this attitude . . . ,
although we know perfectly well that the virus does not ask to see to a
passport," said Barbara Franklin, an official with the American aid agency
CARE.
   In a survey of prostitutes in Ho Chi Minh City, Franklin and others found
that "the most frequent reason given by women who thought they couldn't get
AIDS was because they only had sex with Vietnamese men, not with foreigners."
   More than half of the prostitutes thought it was impossible to get AIDS from
their husbands or from good friends, and thought that washing after sex was a
way to prevent AIDS, Franklin said.
   The survey also found that very few prostitutes used condoms regularly, and
most would bow to their customer's wishes.
   Franklin said the survey included interviews with customers. She quoted one
as saying prostitutes "have no right to request anything."
   "If Vietnamese sex workers stop seeing themselves as powerless to oppose a
man, they might ask for condoms more regularly," Franklin said.
   "Work with prostitutes . . . ," Mechai told Vietnamese health officials.
"Attack the sex industry, and it will only go underground - where you can't
control it."
Newsgroups: soc.culture.vietnamese