SOURCE: ABC Radio Australia, 1/20/04
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Thailand has promised to dramatically boost the number of HIV/AIDS patients receiving life-extending anti-retroviral drugs next year. It's part of the government push to have all Thais living with the virus on the drugs by 2005. But with clinic resources already stretched health officials are warning that hospitals may not be able to cope.

Transcript:

BARTON: Thai doctors administer anti-retroviral drugs to a few of the approximately 600,000 people affected by HIV/AIDS in Thailand. About 15,000 Thais currently receive the treatment, and Ministry of Health spokeswoman Doctor Petchsri Sirinirund hopes the number will have at least tripled by this time next year.

PETCHSRI: The target for 2004 is 50,000 cases. Last year there were only about 2500 cases in the program but in November the number the number has risen up to more than five time increase in 12-month period.

BARTON: Doctor Petchsri says the Government's production of relatively cheap, anti-retro viral drugs has allowed the Kingdom to pursue its aggressive treatment campaign.

PETCHSRI: In Thailand without ARV therapy 50,000 of AIDS cases would have died every year, or approximately 150 every day.

BARTON: The boost to ARV production has been welcomed by Thailand's medical community, but health experts such as Red Cross AIDS specialist Praphan Phanuphak warn hospitals are already struggling under their current anti-retroviral regimes, and doctors are reluctant to take on more patients.

PRAPHAN: If you don't have the real commitment from the doctors, if you don't have real commitment from the hospital directors, nothing can be done either so I think Ministry of Public health has to make policy clearly to all the hospital directors and all the doctors that they need to treat patients now that the the money is there, drug is there the knowledge is there the facility is there. This sort of thing is very hard to do in Thailand because doctors are very hard-headed person and they don't want anyone to order them.

BARTON: New patients will be covered by two of the government's primary health care schemes, but Doctor Praphan worries that too few hospitals are getting the news.

PRAPHAN: Some people complain that they went to the hospital and asked for the 30 baht scheme for ARV or the social security fund scheme, they were refused, no one knows how to do it, no one knows where to get it, so we still lack some timing in order to implement this policy into actions.

BARTON: Pharmacists mix together the three main components of the Thai made anti-retroviral cocktail. The drugs have been so successful the government is building another production plant and Thai Health Ministry AIDS specialist Sombat Thanprasertsuk says Thailand has begun talks with China on a joint program.

SOMBAT: There are so many countries that show their interest to procure ARV from Thailand. Many countries we already export drugs, the GPO has supplied to us fully to the Thai program.

BARTON: The World Health Organization's Doctor Bjorn Melgaard describes Thailand as a model for the WHO's new 3 by 5 campaign, which aims to have 3 million patients in the developing world on ARV treatment by 2005.

MELGAARD: Thailand is included as one of the countries in the first wave of three by five and one of the reason of course are that have been learned in Thailand that can be used in other countries to expand the program, so Thailand is an example of a country that provides lessons for the world.

BARTON: If all goes well with the current program, the Thai Government says it will attempt to have all of Thailand's HIV/AIDS patients on anti-retrovirals within two years. And even those who say that's unlikely concede Thailand is the region's shining light when it comes to fighting the virus.

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