Reaching out to those living with HIV/Aids in Thailand

(Vatican Radio) As people around the globe mark World Aids Day on December 1st we shine the spotlight on the situation in Thailand for those living with HIV/Aids. The nation has reversed a serious HIV and Aids epidemic in recent years but it still stands as one of the highest in Asia for the percentage of people infected with the virus. Official figures show that over half a million people in Thailand are currently HIV positive. Paul Baird is a volunteer at the Camillian Centre in Thailand that was set up by an Italian Catholic priest. The Centre provides shelter and care to homeless, indigent and rejected children and adults living with HIV/Aids. He spoke to Vatican Radio's Susy Hodges about the HIV/Aids situation in Thailand.

Baird says the HIV/Aids epidemic in Thailand is "still a very big problem" but acknowledged that the country has made big strides in helping to bring down the spread of the virus. All the same, he adds, "it still has a long way to go" and points out that the unofficial figures for the HIV/Aids prevalance are likely to be quite a bit higher than the official ones.

On the plus side, says Baird, all Thai citizens now "get access to free anti retroviral drugs" but the flip side is that this does not include the many people living in Thailand who are not Thai. He says the "stigma against the disease is still great" and explains that many of the HIV positive children they care for at the Centre are orphans as "the majority of their parents are dead because of HIV/Aids."

Bairs shares with us the "wonderful" inspirational story of one of their carers, a 26 year old university student who was born HIV positive and who was one of the first children to be saved by the Centre's founder with anti-Aids drugs coming from Europe. This girl, he adds, "is the oldest living person in the whole of Asia to have had HIV from birth."