-Caveat Lector- AIDS devastates Thailand's children Copyright © 1999 Nando Media Copyright © 1999 Reuters News Service By ANCHALEE KOETSAWANG BANGKOK, Thailand (June 1, 1999 12:30 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Kanika dreams of being a famous singer one day. But the 5-year-old, whose name means flower in Thai, has AIDS and may not make it into her teens, let alone the music industry. Doctors say the bright-eyed Thai orphan will soon become a pale shadow of her former self as the disease passed on to her by her now deceased parents takes hold. She will probably die a lonely death in the government-run orphanage in Bangkok she shares with 40 other children in the same predicament. The Phyathai Babies Home also provides a home for children whose parents have died of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome but who themselves are not infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). The number of AIDS orphans has grown sharply in recent years in Thailand, experts say, as more mothers have become infected and given birth to children like Kanika. The Health Ministry has forecast that the number of Thai orphans, with AIDS or without AIDS, from infected parents will nearly double to 86,000 by the year 2000 from 44,469 in 1997. A senior official at the ministry's AIDS division says the projection is conservative, and the actual figure could be much higher. More than 900,000 people in Thailand are infected with HIV, according to ministry figures using data from 1984. Rachanee Raibarb, a superintendent at Phyathai, says the social and financial costs of the orphans' welfare are substantial. Orphans with AIDS have to be treated in carefully disinfected facilities staffed by trained nannies. Medicines, such as AZT, are also costly. The medicine will prolong their lives but cannot save them. Rachanee is particularly concerned about the non-AIDS orphans under her care. "Despite all the efforts to save the infected orphans, we will eventually lose them. It is heart-breaking, but it is a fact of life that we around here have to cope with," she said. "But what is more heart breaking is trying to get HIV-negative orphans from deceased AIDS parents adopted. The orphanage is not a place for such children. Our problem is once the prospective adoptive parents know the background of the children, they don't want to have anything to do with them." Sayomporn Sirinavin, a doctor at Bangkok's Ramathibodi Hospital who has worked with AIDS orphans, says prejudice and blind fear of AIDS are the key factors that have driven the noninfected orphans into orphanages. "These children have relatives, but some of these relatives are forced to take the children to orphanages because of social pressure," she said. "Once neighbors know their parents have died of AIDS, the aunties and uncles who take care of them will be ostracized. If they are in business, especially food, their businesses could collapse because of the stigma. It is that serious." A health ministry official said: "In many cases it is the grandparents who take care of the children. There is always a constant financial worry. To feed these children is enough of a challenge, let alone educating them." Sayomporn said the government was trying to solve the AIDS orphans problem at its root by campaigning for couples to have thorough medical checks before marriage or having a baby. "More and more unsuspecting housewives have become victims because of their insensitive husbands. Once these infected mothers get pregnant, we try to save their babies," she said. "Sometimes we can save the babies who will soon become orphans. Sometimes we lose them both. The best way is to nip the problem in the bud, and that is what we are trying to do." DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
