Update on HIV/AIDS in Thailand
Kiat Ruxrungtham, M.D., M.Sc.*, Praphan Phanuphak, M.D., Ph.D.**,
Abstract
Thailand experienced its first case of AIDS in 1984. Approximately 800,000 Thais were infected with HIV in 1995 and 1 million Thais became infected by the year 2000. There have been 5 major epidemic waves: among male homosexuals (started 1984-5), intravenous drug users (started 1988), female commercial sex workers (started 1989), male clients (started 1990), and housewives and the newborn (started 1991).
Approximately 96 per cent of HIV-1 infected Thais carried recombinant subtype A/E, the rest carried B’. In a male seroconvertors cohort of 235 cases, median time to show CD4