HIV : LOS and how many percent

[buffalo_bill]

On the plane to BKK on May 16th I met a party of Thai government ' officials ' coming

back from a health conference in Geneva.

Hesitate to release their identity here, if you read the Post from Thursday 17th you should find something about my buddies.

HIV infected in % / year 2000

Conscripts : 1,5

Pregnant : 1,4

Drug-addicts : around 20

Prostitutes : 10,5

HIV total LOS 700000

AIDS developed 200000 ( of 700000)

New entries / year about 15000

My impression was that they extremely scared about this whole issue in particular because they seem to realise how much money it costs

to deal with the real AIDS-cases later on.

After I asked how they make sure the figures meet reality, he explained the process which

basically means they use large " groups "

whome they regularly check.

He says it is a legend that there are more HIV-infected prostitutes up North than in the

falang-areas.

Which would mean : every 10th sanuk means

HIV on the other end.

cheers

[buffalo_bill]

db,

I am neither a statistical expert nor a big believer in Thai government statements. Nor in any other government statements.

The guy I met was the State Secretary of Health accompanied by other officials and his cabinet Minister, a knowledgeable lady. We discussed the issue over hours and I further wanted to know how the 30 Baht health-scheme would work. I principally doubtet all he said which is easier after 5 Singhas.

Because we got tired, he invited me for lunch on Friday 25th but at that time I had to be in Taipei and cancelleed it. He wanted me to give some literature about their HIV studies because I wanted to know what they are worth.

If you want to have them, mail me your adress in private and wait 2 weeks.

Cheers

[Catalyst]

Here is a site that might be helpful:

http://www.unaids.org/hivaidsinfo/statistics/june00/fact_sheets/all_countries.html#U

Click on Thailand (or any other country).

Of course it is always hard to know how the sample used for these statistics compares with the groups of girls that one meets at the popular areas like Nana. I suspect that the rates at the relatively upper class areas like Nana or Patpong are not as high as 10 percent, but there is no way of being sure, and I would guess that the rate is unlikely to be less than the 1 or 2 percent rate of the general population, so we are all going to use condoms anyway, right?

[tomc12]

Statistics are useful for a general idea of the scope of a problem and helpful in identifying trends. But you have to be careful in interpreting the data-most studies show a higher percent of HIV among sex workers up North, but because of the higher population density in Bangkok, the actual cases are more in Bangkok.

The WHO statistics for Thailand leave much to be desired-too much conflicting data and numbers that don't add up. A 2% rate of HIV/AIDS among the 15-49 age group population has been published in other studies.

[Sukhumvit]

Just heard a report on the radio about South Africa's Aids/Hiv problem. Obviously one problem facing that country is Mbeki. However, w/out getting drawn into an Hiv does/not cause Aids argument, they appparently have estimated that 10% of their population is infected with HIV.

Does anybody have any info (suitable to be digested by a non-medically trained gimp) with regard to whether different strains of Hiv are more virulent or not i.e. more infective? Various experts claim that Hiv does not last long outside the body and certain activities are more dangerous than others but just wondering whether there are differences between the different strains. Just curious, haven't got plans to rut in Joburg.

[tomc12]

As far as I know, there are two types of HIV-HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-2 is found mainly in Africa. There are different subtypes too. For example, subtype B is the predominant one in the US and subtype E is the predominant one in Thailand.

Transmission is the same for types 1 and 2, but 2 seems to have a slower onset of the destruction of the CD-4 cells and some differences in infectiousness. There is also a difference in response to antiviral drugs.

Thailand is currently involved in AIDSVAX testing that maybe Josh could tell you more about.

[Sukhumvit]

TomC

Cheers for that.

(I understood it. Hooray.)