Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
June 20, 2016
Thailand, Belarus, Armenia eliminate mother-child HIV spread
By Margie Mason
AP Medical Writer
hailand has become the first country in Asia to
eliminate the mother-to-child transmission of HIV
and syphilis, the World Health Organization
(WHO) has announced.
The milestone is another step in Thailand’s aggressive
campaign to reduce new cases of the AIDS virus, but
experts warn many other problems still exist — including
a rising rate of new HIV infections among gay men and
transgender people.
The number of babies contracting HIV dropped from
more than 3,000 in the late 1990s to 86 in 2015, a figure
that was validated to meet WHO’s criteria for elimination
— mother-to-child transmission rates of less than two
percent and fewer than 50 new infections in 100,000
births.
Cuba became the first country to reach the goal last
year. Along with Thailand, Belarus eliminated the
mother-to-child spread of HIV and syphilis, Armenia did
for HIV, and Moldova did for syphilis, WHO announced.
Globally, 220,000 new cases of HIV were recorded in
babies in 2014, and syphilis caused some 200,000
stillbirths and neonatal deaths in 2012.
“I do think that once Thailand has been able to do it, it’s
a motivation for other countries around the world and also
for the public health community because one does see now
that, yes, the world can be free of HIV,” Poonam Khetrapal
Singh, WHO’s Southeast Asia director, said by phone,
noting Thailand’s HIV rate was once among the region’s
highest.
Thailand’s success comes from strong prenatal care
from large cities all the way to the poorest villages. Nearly
all pregnant Thai women are screened for HIV,
Ninety-five percent of those who test positive are treated
to prevent transmission to their babies and almost 100
percent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers are given
antiretroviral drugs.
However, hundreds of thousands of migrant women,
many of them working or seeking menial jobs in Thailand,
are not included in the data. Many poor women from
neighboring Myanmar and Cambodia do not receive any
prenatal care or HIV screening while in Thailand. A 2010
Thai government report found that two to three times
more migrant women were infected with HIV in certain
areas of the country.
There are an estimated 2.7 million registered and
undocumented male and female migrant workers in
Thailand. They have limited access to the country’s
healthcare system, and many are reluctant to get tested or
treated for HIV due to language barriers or out of fear they
will lose their jobs or have negative interactions with
police or other authority figures, according to UNAIDS.
Steve Mills, technical director at nonprofit FHI360’s
Asia-Pacific office in Bangkok, said this is an area
Thailand needs to improve, along with focusing more on
at-risk populations such as intravenous drug users and
sex workers operating outside of brothels. Gay men and
transgender people are of particular concern.
“With the evolution of the epidemic and people being on
T
Sparse Chinese presence
in crowd at Zou’s U.S. debut
Continued from page 7
audience, mostly on mobile
devices due to Zou’s fight
taking place when it was a
Sunday morning in China,
and Chinese people were
working Sunday morning
because of a Chinese
holiday break on Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday.
“Despite the time, Zou
has the most audience for
fighters in China,” said
WeiWei Wu, a member of
LeTV. “He is No. 1 for
almost all the fans and the
last time he fought the
audience was over 10,000
at the venue.”
Zou’s stardom was show-
cased on season 3 of “Dad,
Where Are We Going?” in
China. The season aired
from July to October 2015.
“The reality show is him
taking his son fishing and
various activities, and it’s
the highest-rated reality
TV show in China,” Arum
said.
Zou and his wife, Ying
Ying Ren, a presenter on
China television, make up
one of China’s most popular
couples. Zou also made a
cameo in the Hollywood
blockbuster Transformer 4:
Age of Extinction.
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SLOWING THE SPREAD. An HIV-positive mother plays with her son, who did not contract the virus from her, in Phetchaburi province, south of
Bangkok, in this June 17, 2004 file photo. Thailand has become the first country in Asia to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis,
according to the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
HIV treatment, it’s meant that condom use is harder to get
to a satisfactory level,” he said, adding that gay men and
transgender people are often harder to reach today
because couples often meet through social networks
instead of in bars, saunas, or other public places where
outreach workers once targeted them. “We need to
encourage people to get tested.”
Last year, the World Bank published a study calling for
more free anonymous testing and treatment among gay
men. It said the rate of infection within Bangkok alone
had jumped from an estimated 21 percent in 2000 to 28
percent in 2012. Only one-fifth of those infected were
receiving antiretroviral drugs, even though it’s provided
by the government without cost.
Thailand was hailed by the international community as
a model for other countries after promoting 100 percent
condom use among sex workers in brothels in the 1990s,
drastically reducing infection rates.
But AIDS continues to kill. In 2014, an estimated
20,000 people died from the disease in Thailand, a rate
that has remained steady for the past five years. An
estimated 450,000 people are living with the virus in the
country of 60 million.
Mason covers health issues in the Asia-Pacific region.