AIDS in Thailand

Thai culture dictates that people shouldn't have sexual experience before they are married. But many male teenagers reaching puberty know how to dodge the rule.

According to immunologist Vicham Vithayasai, 60 percent of 15-year-olds and 80 percent of 18-year-olds already have visited prostitutes.

"Young kids who haven't had sex yet are teased by their friends," Vithayasai said. It was always possible to find a reason to have sex, whether you are taking the boss out, or visiting a new city, he said.

"If you haven't had sex there, you haven't really been there," he said.

Women suffer the consequences

While men are allowed to sow the wild oats, women are expected to enter into marriage as virgins. For a woman to have sex before marriage is seen as an unforgivable slur on the family's honor and reputation. If the husbands have affairs or visit prostitutes, women often bear it silently and accept the situation.

It was too late when Karuna, a 26-year-old mother of two, realized that her husband's affair would be fatal for her.

"I trusted him - and so I didn't use protection," Karuna said. Now she is HIV-positive.

In contrast to the West, AIDS in Thailand is transmitted 95 percent by heterosexuals. Men often infect their partners and then blame the westernization of their society for the problem. They complain that traditional values and behavioral patterns are being eroded. The fact that it is mostly the men contributing to the spread of HIV is simply ignored.

Equal rights for men and women?

The Thai constitution guarantees men and women equal rights. Still, many of the country's laws contradict the 1997 constitutional amendment, said Virada Somswadi, who teaches social sciences at the University of Chiang Mai. Equality in everyday life does not exist, she said.

"Her whole life, the Thai woman has to fight her way in a blatantly patriarchal macho system," said Somswadi, who has been fighting for women's rights for more than 20 years. "It's a system that denies her the same rights as the men."

More education necessary

The first official AIDS-related illness was recorded in Thailand in 1984. In reality, the virus was already widespread in the country.

In 1992, Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun started the "100-percent condoms" campaign. But the government's condom promotion was only a short-term solution to try to reduce infection rates. They failed to back it up with programs that would properly educate men on the dangers of unprotected sexual promiscuity and, therefore, failed to convince men to change their sexual lifestyles.

As long as wives continue to blindly trust their husbands, they run the risk of getting infected. Mostly they don't understand that they are in any danger, or that using a condom could seriously reduce their risk of infection.

An estimated 1.3 million people in Thailand are thought to currently be HIV-positive. Half of the recent cases are women who were infected by their husbands or their partners.

Authors: Praweenar Thadhaprom/Teerapap Pengjun/Silke Bartlick
Editor: Sabina Casagrande