Thailand blazes trail in Aids fight

Aids is a growing menace in Asia

By the BBC's Simon Ingram in Bangkok

Addressing the needs and rights of people with Aids or infected with the HIV virus is the subject of a major conference beginning in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

More than 2,000 activists, researchers, public health officials and Aids sufferers are expected to attend the four-day gathering.

Organisers have made what they call the 'power of humanity' the central theme, a reminder of the strength and capacity of the human spirit to care for others

It is the first time the international conference on Home and Community Care for People Living with HIV/Aids has been held in Asia.

The venue recognises some of the community-based initiatives undertaken by Thailand, where about one million people are thought to have contracted the disease.

Thailand's record in tackling one of Asia's earliest and most severe Aids epidemics is frequently cited as an example of what imaginative and sensitive policies can achieve.

Stigma reduced

When the disease took hold here in the early 1990s the state medical system quickly found itself overwhelmed.

The authorities therefore turned to religious and other non-governmental groups for help in caring for the growing number of infected people.

It was a bold move, which helped to spread the burden of care through the community and which helped reduce the deep stigma attached to the illness.

Thailand has found a fresh approach to tackling Aids

Lessons like this will be the focus of the conference in Chiang Mai.

Organisers have made what they call the "power of humanity" the central theme, a reminder of the strength and capacity of the human spirit to care for others.

The meeting comes at a time when Aids is beginning to conquer new territory in Asia.

Health officials say the epidemic is now entering Indonesia and northern Vietnam, while the situation in Burma is thought to be far worse than the government there has acknowledged.

Thailand is coming to terms with the fact that the incidence of HIV/Aids is again on the rise and threatening sectors of society that had previously been largely untouched.