A.I.D.S. Has Reached Thailand (Press, 1 March 1986)

Diana Smith from the Observer reports on the challenges facing Asia's largest centres of prostitution due to the emergence of the A.I.D.S. virus. Thailand, seen as a major hub for international sex tourism, receives around half a million mainly male tourists from the United States and Europe annually, many of whom are drawn to the nightlife of go-go bars, massage parlours, and gay clubs. Simultaneously, numerous Thai women are recruited to work as dancers in bars and hotels in Western cities. Thai health officials attribute the introduction of A.I.D.S. in the country to sexual encounters between Thai nationals and foreign tourists, with Dr Debhanom Muangman, head of Bangkok’s largest public health school, asserting that all reported A.I.D.S. cases in Thailand are imported and linked to foreign tourists. The first diagnosed case of A.I.D.S. in Thailand was a homosexual student returning from the United States, and experts now face the daunting task of controlling the virus's spread in a sex-tourism reliant economy. The country has an estimated 500,000 female prostitutes and up to 300,000 young homosexual males catering to the demands of local and international visitors in major cities and resort towns. Though there have been six documented cases of A.I.D.S. in Thailand, US expert Dr Bruce Weniger indicates that there may be unrecorded cases. Worryingly, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Health Steven Grossman notes that individuals may be carriers of the virus and appear healthy, thereby unknowingly spreading the infection. According to Grossman, only five to ten per cent of those with the retrovirus will develop A.I.D.S., but the asymptomatic carriers can still transmit the virus. Surveys in high-risk groups have shown that about one per cent of active homosexual males and 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of female prostitutes are infected. While Grossman reassures that contracting A.I.D.S. from female prostitutes is low-risk, he stresses the need for significant public education to promote behaviour change and encourage abstaining from sexual contact with potentially infected individuals. However, public awareness campaigns regarding A.I.D.S. and venereal diseases face considerable obstacles. Efforts to distribute educational pamphlets in Pattaya were met with backlash from the Health Ministry, as local bar owners feared the campaigns could damage the resort's reputation as a tourist destination. Minister Marut Bunnag expressed concern over the potential economic consequences of promoting Pattaya as a site of disease. Additionally, even those at high risk who wish to be tested for the A.I.D.S. virus encounter difficulties, as government hospitals are overwhelmed with individuals seeking medical certificates for work in Saudi Arabia, all of whom have tested negative so far. A commentary by the Bangkok Post suggested that it may be tourists, rather than local workers, who might carry health risks back from Pattaya. The situation paints a complex picture of the interplay between public health, economic interests, and social behaviours in Thailand's sex industry amidst the A.I.D.S. crisis.

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