Thailand - Sex tourism to Thailand and Indonesia driving rise in HIV cases

DRUNKEN lads' holidays in Thailand and Indonesia, involving unprotected sex with prostitutes, are boosting Queensland's HIV rate.

And men from north Queensland are picking up the virus from trips to nearby Papua New Guinea, a country with one of the world's highest HIV rates.

The alarming hike in the rate of human immunodeficiency virus, a forerunner to AIDs, has led for calls to again push the safe-sex message amid fears young people are becoming lax.

In 2010, Queensland recorded its highest number of new HIV cases - with 206 people diagnosed - and the numbers are still climbing.

WA has also recorded an increase but across the rest of the country figures remain steady or have declined.

And while most cases continue to involve gay men, the number of heterosexuals contracting HIV is increasing.

Australian Medical Association Queensland president Dr Richard Kidd said the increase in WA and Queensland was likely due to the mining boom in those states.

"Young men, isolated from their families, earning lots of money - and whether they are going to Thailand and having sex with prostitutes or whether prostitutes are coming in from other countries, the data doesn't quite tell us.

"But they are both legitimate concerns."

He said Thailand and Papua New Guinea had the highest rate of HIV per head of population, with 1300 out of every 100,000 people diagnosed with the disease in Thailand and 900 per 100,000 in PNG.

"I would want to get that message out again about safe sex - I don't know how much young men are aware that Thailand is the HIV capital of the world," Dr Kidd said.

Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said annual rates of HIV diagnosis had doubled in the past decade: from 2.7 per 100,000 population in 2000, to 5.4 in 2010.

Mr Springborg said these rates - the highest in Queensland since records began in 1984 - represented an alarming failure in public health policy.

"When it comes to health, unlike Labor, I refuse to throw good money after bad and I refuse to turn a blind eye to what are obviously ineffective campaigns at reducing HIV diagnosis rates," Mr Spring- borg said.

He said he would move to re-direct more than $2.5 million in grants that had, until now, been channelled through the Queensland Association for Healthier Communities.

"Instead of this funding being administered by QAHC, which has published its intention to move the core of its activity away from AIDS/HIV to more general political issues, it will be moved into the control of an expert panel - a Ministerial Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS.

KATE KYRIACOU

The Courier-Mail

Thailand - Thai research team tests HIV vaccine

A Thai research team is working on two new studies to see how a vaccine can boost people's immunity against HIV.

"These studies will help us determine if a vaccine can strengthen immunity against the virus," Prof Dr Punnee Pitisuttithum, chief of Mahidol University's Vaccine Research Centre, said.

About 500,000 to 600,000 people are living with HIV/Aids in Thailand, and though the situation has improved in terms of treatment, the efficiency of preventative measures has been below expectation and the annual average of 10,000 new patients is higher than projected.

The trials, divided into two, will involve a total of 632 volunteers. The first study, called RV305, will evaluate immunity boosting strategies for noninfected participants.

In 2009, the HIVvaccine efficacy trial, RVI44, tested a combination of two vaccines - ALVAC HIV (prime vaccine) and AIDSVAX B/E (the booster) - on more than 16,000 HIV-negative men and women from Chon Buri and Rayong provinces. The outcome of the trial showed that the combined vaccine lowered the rate of HIV infections by 31.2 per cent, but had no effect on the amount of the virus in the blood.

The results of RV144 trial also showed that the efficacy rate of primeboost vaccine, one year after being administered, was approximately 60 per cent.

A recent discovery suggested that the potential immune correlatesantibody so called V1/V2 region is likely to be protective leading to further studies using similar regimen.

"The previous trial helped us to learn more about the type of antibodies that could improve a human's immunity to fight against HIV. This was why we are conducting two studies to find out more details about the efficacy of the HIV vaccine," Dr Punnee, who is leading the studies, said.

About 167 people, who were part of the previous RV144 trial, will participate in the RV305 trial and receive eight shots of the combined vaccine in one year. The RV305 trial began last month and the result should be ready in two years.

The second study, named RV306, will focus on the efficacy of the HIV vaccine on 465 volunteers who are not at a high risk of getting infected. The trial will evaluate different booster vaccines one year after the volunteers have received either AIDSVAX B/E or ALVACHIV alone or a combination of both. The trial will also study specific immunity responses to various bodily fluids, including secretions from the cervix and the anus. The results of this trial should be ready in three years, though the research team is awaiting approval from the university's ethics committee.

"We don't know if these vaccines are capable of activating the immune system in other parts of the body," Dr Punnee said.

The two studies will be conducted in collaboration with several institutions, namely the Public Health Ministry, Vaccine Trial Centre, Mahidol University's Faculty of Tropical Medicines, the US Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Research Institute for Health Science, the Chulalongkorn University and the Thai Red Cross Society. The World Health Organisation (WHO), Vaxgen Inc and the Military HIVVaccine Research Programme are also supporting the trials.

Pongphon Sarnsamak

The Nation