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HIV infection rates among Thailand’s
estimated 180,000 transgenders are thought to be on the rise as prostitution,
drug use and a lack of targeted health care services take their toll on one of
the country’s most marginalized groups.
No official figures detail HIV
statistics among transgenders, who are known as “katoey” or “lady-boys.” But in
the Chonburi province, local data released this year show 11 percent of
transgenders there had HIV, a figure that increased to 20 percent among those
age 29 and older. Chonburi is home to Pattaya, one of the centers of Thailand’s
booming sex trade. During the tourist season, the city’s population of
transgenders swells to 3,000.
Chonburi’s data mirror the regional
assessment by the UN Development Program this May, when a study estimated HIV
prevalence rates among transgenders across Asia-Pacific could be as high as 49
percent. According to UNDP, many transgenders operate on the “social, economic,
and legal” margins of society - pushed there by sex work, drugs, stigma, and a
lack of health care.
“HIV is also just one of a whole
range of risks transgender people encounter every day,” said Alex Duke of PSI,
the global health organization that conducted the survey on behalf of UNDP.
Though Thailand has a famously permissive
attitude toward sexuality, discrimination against transgenders is common, said
Prempreeda Pramoj Na Ayutthaya, a transgender researcher and activist.
Transgender persons often are rejected by their families and schools, resulting
in social immobility that may drive them into sex work. “Many transgender
people find that sex work is the only way to make a small amount of money and
maintain their identity,” said Prempreeda.
Advocates are calling for more
resources to prevent, diagnose, and treat HIV among transgenders, and to study
how the disease is impacting the community.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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