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INTERVIEW - Mr. Senator
Mechai Viravaidya, Community Co-Chair, XV International
AIDS Conference |
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| “This time, there's going
to be more action at the Bangkok conference” |
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| The XV International AIDS Conference will give the youth a
chance to take the lead in bringing about attitudinal and behavioural
changes. Anyone who can make a difference will get involved.
Leaders will be questioned and follow-ups will be made on the
promises that they make, says Senator Mechai Viravaidya in an
interview with Larry Levitt from Kaisernetwork.org |
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| Every two years, the International AIDS Conference brings
together scientists, researchers, community people, NGOs to
discuss new developments in the HIV/AIDS epidemic and focus
the world's attention on the disease. In recent years, much
of the world's focus on the HIV/AIDS epidemic has been in Africa.
Bringing this conference to Bangkok will turn the world's attention
to the emerging epidemic in Asia and how Thailand in particular
has responded to the epidemic. |
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| Senator Mechai Viravaidya, is the Community Co-Chair of the
15th International AIDS Conference, which will be held in Bangkok
next month. Senator Mechai spent many years working on prevention.
Among his many achievements, he set up the famous Condoms and
Cabbages restaurant in Bangkok. He has been a leader in Thailand
and around the world on prevention issues. |
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| What sort of themes or messages do you
expect will come out of the conference next month? |
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| The overall theme is "access for all", but we hope
it is not going to get limited to just talk. We are hoping to
see action. Perhaps the most important thing is that we will
have a very clear pilot demonstration ready whereby Thailand
will be providing ARV for people from three neighbouring countries
-- Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia -- who will get drugs supplied
by the Thai government. This will be funded partially by the
government, some NGOs and some business houses. The surplus
funds will be used for more ARV for these people. There have
been a lot of promises made but they have failed on the deliverables.
People have been disappointed because there has not been much
action. |
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| Could you talk about where we are globally
in our efforts to prevent the epidemic? |
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| If you take a look at the last three International AIDS conferences,
you will see that there were no real sessions on prevention,
even condoms. They use the word prevention and they use everything
else but the condom in discussions. So we're going to do more.
We will have a programme of traffic policemen giving out condoms.
We call that our "Cops and Rubbers" programme. We're
going to ask quite a few people who are interested in attending
the conference to come and join the police in giving out condoms
and, in turn, saving lives. This is action as opposed to "talk".
We also hope to have some demonstrations as to how condoms work.
People will realize that it's not difficult to prevent infections.
HIV/AIDS infections can be preventable and anyone who can change
attitudes and behavior must be involved, not just doctors and
nurses. This conference has to concentrate on every area where
there is a possibility. Another important plan is to bring in
youth and leaders. We're going to have a major programme with
youth and leaders so that the youth get involved in every aspect.
There will be youth-specific sessions where they can question
the leaders present. We have quite a few leaders coming for
the conference. And we want them not just to talk but to say
what they can do. We expect the leaders to mobilize greater
care and support from other fellow politicians. |
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| There have been some very high profile
promises recently - the Global Fund, WHO's three million people
treated by 2005 and President Bush's Global AIDS Initiative
initiated recently. How much optimism do you have about these
initiatives? |
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| Well, often when people make promises, there is no follow
up done. Learning from this, we've established a mechanism to
follow up on promises. We'll have different groups to follow
up on promises made by different people. In fact, we're will
be very involved with the media to assist in the follow up. |
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| When people come here to Bangkok next month,
what do you think they'll see in terms of the state of the epidemic
in Thailand? |
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| The first thing they will see is that HIV/AIDS in Asia is
spreading rapidly and action is required. Secondly, they will
that Thailand has become serious about addressing HIV/AIDS issues.
There are no more denials. They will see that action has been
taken. We've seen over the last 12 years a 90 percent decline
in new cases of HIV. They will also see that not only NGOs and
but a lot of people are involved as well. We feel that the corporate
sector has to be involved. We hope that they will sponsor the
youth, who in turn, can take more action. When one is talking
about trying to change attitude and behavior of youth, it is
important to involve them in designing the content and the programme.
So the business leaders will also be asked to come in. For instance,
the person leading the hotel industry will be invited. We hope
that he can get hotels to educate their staff on HIV/AIDS issues
so that they are sensitized. Finally, we hope that all hotel
rooms in the world will keep condoms in their mini bars. That
is the major target test for us. |
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| What do you attribute Thailand's success
to? |
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| Real effort by all concerned. I had explained
to the Prime Minister and his Cabinet the economic impact as
well as the health issues of HIV/AIDS and told them that the
Prime Minister should be the Chairman of National AIDS Committee.
I suggested the Minister of Health as the deputy. Every ministry
that can affect behaviorial or attitudinal changes should be
involved. The industrial sector must also be involved, whether
its insurance, banks or petroleum companies. Everyone must be
involved, not just the medical professionals. That's why we
have in AIDS education in schools, in factories and in villages. |
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