Health Services
HIV/AIDS Prevention
HIV/AIDS is an increasing concern at our clinic. In the six-year period 1998-2004 the number of cases detected in antenatal care (ANC) clients screened doubled from 0.8% to 1.54%. The percentage of HIV found among Thai adults (15-49 yrs) is estimated to be 1.59%. In Burma it is estimated to be 1.2 % (UNAIDS, 2004). The percentages we encounter in our ANC programmes is more or less the same. On the basis of these averages we estimate there are between 1,800 to 2,250 persons living with HIV/AIDS in our catchment population of 150,000 persons.
The Clinic also has a Voluntary Confidential Testing and Counseling service (VCT). Many of those who attend do so because they believe they may have had exposure to the disease, so the percentages of HIV detected here is naturally higher than those found in ANC. There were 1,062 tests done in 2006. Figures for 2004 show that 14.8% of those who came actually were HIV positive
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