Thailand: HIV Spreads Among Young People

In Thailand, health officials are battling the growing spread of HIV among young people. Unfortunately, even though there has been a great deal of attempts to educate young people on HIV and safe sex many young people are too scared to go and purchase condoms.

In a poll taken by the Health Ministry indicated that 77 percent of teenagers in Thailand are not educated on how HIV is spread. According to the article, individuals who are infected with HIV used condoms only 50 percent of the time. That is a lot of unprotected sex.

I seriously cannot imagine not using a condom. I have no plans on getting pregnant or catching some kind of STD anytime soon. I also have no interest in getting HIV. It is kind of mind-boggling that half of all their sexual encounters were unprotected.

How do you educate people on an issue that has fallen by the wayside?

There is no cure for this disease. Now unless you feel comfortable beingcondom-free and having sex without thinking about what possible diseases you might be getting – chances are you’ll be popping a wide variety of pills for the rest of your life.

Seeing as how widespread this disease is in Thailand I don’t understand why people would be so afraid to purchase condoms when they could be saving their own life in the long run. Yes, purchasing a box of condoms isn’t the most glamorous moment in your life, but it sure as hell beats the alternative.

-- Eming Piansay