Bangkok Post Reports: “International Aids campaigners have raised concern over a sharp increase in infections among Thai housewives, fearing the rise of new cases in this formerly low-risk group reflected the country’s complacency in tackling the epidemic. Deborah Landey, deputy executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids), said the soaring infection rate among housewives was alarming and intervention programmes needed to be urgently scaled up to curb the spread.
…In Thailand, up to 40% of the 18,000 new cases found each year are housewives, which was previously identified as a low-risk group.
Most housewives contract the virus from their promiscuous husbands who have had casual sex.
The number was high compared to so-called high-risk groups, such as men having sex with men (28%) and sex workers (10%).
In response, Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla plans to promote a ”family condom” campaign to encourage married couples to stay monogamous.
An estimated 580,000 adults and children in Thailand were living with HIV at the end of 2005, according to UNAids.”
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