Mukdahan - Public health officials in Thailand and Laos will set up inspection teams to monitor the possible spread of infectious diseases by travellers after the opening of the second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge. The new bridge over the Mekong river, linking Mukdahan province with Savannakhet province in L
It is time for the world to protest and demand reversal for the death sentences given to a Palestinian doctor and five Bulgarian nurses in Libya . The case is one of the most pernicious and frightening cases of scapegoating on the world scene. Not only are the six foreigners innocent, they were forced to confess unde
The patent holder of an anti-Aids drug has asked the Commerce Ministry to help initiate a dialogue between the company and the Public Health Ministry over the ministry s planned production of a local version of the anti-Aids drug Efavirenz . Puangrat Asavapisit, director-general of the Intellectual Property Department,
The HIV/Aids infection rate is rising among military conscripts, particularly those stationed in Bangkok and Rayong provinces, according to an army medical report. Lt-Gen Boonlert Chanthapas, surgeon-general of the army s Medical Department, said the HIV/Aids infection rate is about 0.5% of conscripts nationwide. Draft
Lop Buri - Today is World Aids Day and various activities are being held around the world to address the severity of the spread of the disease. But for members of the Ratprachanukroh 33 school football club, a young football team made up of children of HIV-positive parents, it will be another practice day as usual. Ev
Groups of emaciated HIV/Aids patients at Lop Buri s Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu will soon be a thing of the past. Instead, the country s hospice for severe Aids patients is now having to cope with an increasing number of people saved by anti-retroviral treatment but who still fall victim to the social stigma associated with
A group of 250 HIV-positive workers facing resistance to GPO-vir, a locally-made version of an anti-Aids drug, yesterday rallied against the Social Security Office (SSO) and called for revocation of its co-payment scheme, which blocks access to second-line anti-retroviral therapy. The lives of people with HIV/Aids depe
Thailand is planning to produce a local version of the anti-Aids drug Effavirenz to help thousands of HIV/Aids patients who are resistant to the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) s drug GPO-vir. GPO managing director Mongkol Jivasantikarn yesterday said the agency planned to apply for the compulsory licens
Southeast Asia s Aids prevention programme is failing due to a lack of commitment to fighting the epidemic across the region, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday. The Southeast Asia region is not an exception to the documented global low coverage in prevention services, Thierry Mertens, special adviser t
Chiang Mai - A new herbal medicine has shown some promise as an alternative treatment for people with HIV/Aids who are not eligible under the 30-baht healthcare scheme to receive the anti-Aids drug GPO-VIR. Known as SH, the medicine is a combination of two local herbs - Cortex Mori and Flos Carthami - and three from
The rate of HIV infections is on the rise among married Thai women, health authorities have warned. Sombat Tanprasertsuk, director of Aids, Tuberculosis and Sexually Transmitted Diseases Bureau, yesterday said the rise in HIV infections among the indirect risk group prompted the public health authorities to review its
The Public Health Ministry and an anti-Aids campaigner yesterday criticised a remark by a Finnish official blaming Thailand for an increase in HIV cases in his country, saying the rise reflected the lack of safe sex measures among Finnish holidaymakers. It s a must for tourists to protect themselves from HIV/Aids where
Finland is set to see a two-fold increase over five years in HIV cases, due in part to men contracting the disease while on holiday in Thailand , the Finnish government said yesterday. More than 100 new HIV cases are expected before the end of 2006, compared with 53 in 2001, out of a population of 5.
US-based pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences has offered to cut the price of its bestselling anti-Aids drug Tenofovir in the Thai market after learning that HIV/Aids patients have developed resistance to a locally-made drug. Tenofovir will now cost less than 40 baht a tablet, thus greatly reducing the burden of p
The Global Fund has slashed a budget worth billions of baht earmarked for helping the country produce a Thai version of the anti-retroviral drug GPO-Vir for people living with HIV/Aids. Caretaker Deputy Public Health Minister Anuthin Charnveerakul yesterday said the organisation had stopped funding the GPO-Vir producti
The convention centre for the XVI International Aids Conference in Toronto, Canada , looks like a giant shopping mall. Conveyor belts of people stream from one session to another, with celebrity names pulling the biggest crowds - the two Bills (Clinton and Gates), Richard Gere - as well as a whole host of UN acronyms a
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has decided not to seek a Thai patent for its anti-retroviral drug Combid, a source at the Commerce Ministry said yesterday. The withdrawal of its application followed a protest by an HIV/Aids group, which said a patent would give the UK-based firm a monopoly on the drug s sale in
Michel Sidibe, Murilo Alves Moreira and Renu Chahil-Graf
Many companies, under the banner of corporate social responsibility and within the context of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids or National Business Councils on Aids, have taken commendable initiatives to introduce Aids-related workplace policies. But companies take economic decisions. The business sector is th
It was announced last week that $287 million would be provided in grants by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to stimulate research for an HIV vaccine. The money will reward innovation and cooperation. Nicholas Hellman, the foundation s interim director of HIV programmes, has said that 11 of the 16 grants to be awa
Young people, who make up nearly half of the world s population, were the focus of attention on this year s World Population Day yesterday. Millions of young people have bleak prospects due to forces beyond their control, the United Nations said. Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund,
The Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) has to speed up the bidding process for a new anti-Aids drugs factory or its board will face the sack, says Deputy Public Health Minister Anuthin Charnveerakul. Plans for a factory which can make the GPO/VIR drug to World Health Organisation standards had been delayed mo
The drafting of a bill aimed at protecting the human rights of people living with HIV/Aids will be completed and submitted for cabinet approval by the end of the year, said National Human Rights Commissioner Pradit Charoenthaitawee. If approved, it would be the first bill that ensures fairer treatment and better unders
News reports about a Thai woman contracting a new strain of HIV virus is no cause for panic as it is a common occurrence, said medical experts yesterday. Please don t panic about the new form of viral combination. HIV/Aids can t harm you, if you know how to prevent it. However, we have to closely monitor the viral comb
Emeritus Professor Dr Prasert Tongcharoen of Siriraj Hospital has won this year s Mahidol University-B. Braun Prize for his longstanding fight against infectious diseases in Thailand including dengue fever, rabies, polio, HIV/Aids and bird flu. The 72-year-old virologist was behind the country s success in the fight ag
To commemorate World Aids Orphans Day, the FXB Foundation ( Thailand ) is holding a Living Together in Harmony event today to tell the public about children affected by the disease and what can be done to help them. The event, to be held at Bodin Decha School, Lat Phrao Soi 86, is open to all. Participants will have a
Serious thought should be given to a plea issued on Wednesday by scientists around the world calling on the G8 leaders not to get so caught up in the potential threat of bird flu that they divert their attention from the real global killers: TB, HIV/Aids and malaria. They issued the appeal ahead of the G8 summit in St
A three-day meeting at the United Nations attended by more than 150 countries has failed miserably in its attempt to address the world s Aids crisis. It was hoped that finally, after 25 years of having to deal with this virus, a much more definitive statement would emerge so that the world would be better prepared and
-- Showering the plague with cash will do nothing without real reforms; no amount of money will address the root causes of the crisis - political and economic oppression Much of the spectacle at the recent UNAids forum came from battles between self-proclaimed progressives or conservatives over references to prostitute
Doctors, activists and patients have signed a letter to petition Abbot Laboratories of the US to sell a new version of its anti-Aids drug here, since its old drug cocktail on the market now is too costly. The letter has been signed by prominent figures, including the director of the Thai Red Cross Aids Research center,
Nearly 50 members of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV Aids yesterday lobbied the Commerce Ministry and the Intellectual Property Department to reject US-based GlaxoSmithKline s (GSK) request for patent registration of an HIV medicine known as COMBID. Network chairman Kamol Upakaew pointed out COMBID is not a
Pattaya - Failure to get the message across to young people about the dangers of Aids could derail the global effort to fight the disease, the United Nations agency on Aids said yesterday. UNAids began its three-day international meeting yesterday in Pattaya to find the best methods for countries to reach the goal of u
An academic yesterday urged the government to raise taxes on liquor and to use the money generated in the fight against HIV/Aids. Asst Prof Kitti Gunpai, deputy dean of the faculty of communication arts, Chulalongkorn University, said the national budget for HIV/Aids problems is too small, and the government should col
HIV/Aids patients yesterday urged the Public Health Ministry to intervene in the Intellectual Property Department s plan to grant a patent on a giant American pharmaceutical company s widely-used anti-Aids drug. The patent would end patients right to access a cheap anti-retroviral drug, said Nimit Tienudom, director of
Daily News Editorial - Despite previous failed attempts by non-governmental organisations, government authorities now seem to be in favour of having condom vending machines installed in public schools and universities. At a recent seminar of Public Health Ministry officials and those attached to the Office of Higher Ed
The Education Ministry has no objection to the Public Health Ministry s plan to install condom-dispensing machines in schools, said Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng yesterday. The scheme had been proposed once before but a fierce outcry from conservatives forced the Public Health Ministry to back down. The plan is
Chiang Mai - Schoolteachers in this northern province, where the HIV/Aids infection rate is one of the country s highest, have voiced concern over a major cutback in the Public Health Ministry s budget for Aids prevention, saying it will increase infection rates among youngsters. According to the Department of Disease
When 13-year-old Bua first attended a painting workshop for HIV-positive children at the Laemkom Art School in January 2004, nobody realised that a star was about to be born. It was not until Bua had finished her first work, a vertical painting which featured a big tree in the middle of the frame, that the teacher bega
The sight of men chained to trees and walls at a ponoh school in Mayo district may shock strangers, but not local people. These men have been diagnosed as mentally deranged from prolonged drug abuse, or are HIV-Aids positive. A charity rehabilitation centre set up at the school provides herbal treatments which are acce
-- Thailand should think carefully about surrendering its sovereign rights under the WTO - and access to cheap medicine - in exchange for an FTA with the United States Thai and US trade officials are now meeting in Chiang Mai for yet another round of negotiations in an effort to move closer to a bilateral free trade ag
The Public Health Ministry has told the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) to obtain good manufacturing practices (GMP) certification for its HIV treatment drug from the World Health Organisation as soon as possible, to sell the drug on the international market. Deputy Public Health Minister Anuthin Charnveer
This information is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.