BANGKOK, May 27 (TNA) –Thailand has targeted reducing the number of new HIV infections by half by 2011, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Wednesday.
Mr. Abhisit presided over the opening ceremony of the 12th National Seminar on AIDS at Impact Muang Thong Thani exhibition and conference centre in suburban Bangkok.
Over 2,500 participants from agencies concerned, the private sector, international bodies, HIV infected patients, and students are attending the three-day event.
The seminar is focused on the government’s plan to reduce new infections within the next two years, according to the national action plan to prevent the spread of HIV and solve the problem comprehensively.
The spread of HIV was still worrisome with more than 33 million infected people sound the world and about half of them died of this fatal disease, said Abhisit.
In Thailand, there were one million infected persons in the past 20 years and about half of whom died and 500,000 people are still living with HIV, he said.
“The government’s plan if succeessfil will be the result of cooperation from all sides,” he said.
The prime minister said the statistics showed that the new infections - one in four - are male homosexual.
Housewives are an at-risk group, in which the new infections have increased by 30-40 per cent, he added.
The prime minister said he was ready to be the presenter of the campaign to promote the stereotype of a family and loyal man in order to prevent spread of the disease from a husband to a wife. (TNA)
General News : Last Update : 16:13:07 27 May 2009 (GMT+7:00)
|
