Over 77,000 Bangkok residents living with HIV
Atachai Phunkron gets ready to serve his clients as a trained HIV counselor at the SWING drop-in centre in Bangkok – Richard Nyberg, USAID, 2016
Authorities estimate that 77,500 people are living with HIV in Bangkok, 1,190 of them contracted the virus this year, according to deputy Bangkok governor Pol Lt Gen Sophon Phisutthiwong. 628 of the 1,190 identified this year were under 25 years of age.
The figures were unveiled yesterday at a meeting to announce improved measures to monitor people with HIV via the Bangkok Smart Monitoring System.
Sophon said the BMA ratified the Fast-Track Cities 90-90-90 contract on World AIDS Day in Paris on December 1, 2014 to try to prevent more people from contracting the virus and to provide care for people with HIV. He said the monitoring system found that 1,877 people have died of AIDS-related complications so far in 2019.
Information from the National Aids Program of the National Health Service Office indicates 55,123 people with HIV in Bangkok are receiving anti-viral drugs and 41,893 of them have viral level of less than 1,000 copies/ml of blood. Sophon told yesterday’s conference that the BMA will continue to roll out technology to ensure that the people infected with HIV in Bangkok will maintain a good quality of life.
The meeting was attended by 150 nurses and computer operators from BMA hospitals.
You can also access services related to HIV infection through an NGO HERE.
SOURCE: The Nation
