Lead us into Temptation

When the sun goes down on Sukhumvit Rd. in Bangkok, or should I say when the sun sinks somewhere into the matted smog clouds, the street seems to make drastic changes. All the good boys and girls go scurrying off home, the verminous touts crawl out of every dark crevice and the putrid pavements become the catwalk for the world's biggest, cheapest and maybe, seediest brothel. This is it I thought on my last visit, this is Sodom, or is it Gomorrah? - A new fangled biblical catastrophe waiting to be burnt and buried in a hail of brimstone and fire. That's why the short back and sides blokes in impeccable white shirts and ties purveying God are here, they've heard it from the main man that Bangkok will be the catalyst that precedes the apocalypse. I know what you're thinking, "Maybe you're just staying in the wrong places." Well, it's not that Soi Nana is the wrong place; it's just that vice seems to bring life to the floundering flocks.

With a ratio of two male tourists to three female prostitutes all around lower Sukhumvit Road you can almost smell the hormones in the heavy air. Men, invariably physically unattractive, walk hand in hand with scarred hookers as rough as the ground beneath them, and as the night moves closer to shutdown, the flesh traders degenerate into pushy kratoeys and worn out girls who've been in the racket so long they are willing to do unspeakable tricks for the cost of a Starbucks latte. Walking alone back to your Nana area hotel room in the early hours is not unlike Jesus's stint in the desert - temptation abounds. And when you have thousands of carnally charged men on two week bar holidays entering this garden of decadence every day of the year, you can easily imagine what a bustling theatre of copulation the area becomes. There must be more sexual liaisons in the Nana square mile than anywhere on this planet . . . including the jungle.

If you ever meet a man in Thailand who tells you he isn't, or has never been tempted, then he is either steadfastly homosexual, a liar, or a master of denial. It is said in the bible that Abraham went to live in Sodom for the excellent grazing pastures . . . it is equally dubious when a man tells you he is in Bangkok for the temples. It really is no mean feat coming to this country and not dipping your . . . hand . . . in the cookie jar at least once. God destroyed the two cities of sin because he couldn't find 50 moral men, it is thought that post-brimstone the sinful agents moved out and opened up a gaudy complex called Nana Plaza where promiscuity is de rigueur.

For all this sin, you might say, there must be some kind of kick back; God watches over us after all and his omnipresent eyes have been glued to Bangkok for some time. Word on the street is he's indicted the whole city on all seven sins and is even thinking about adding a few more to the now classical, but anachronistic list. For some loose Western men punishment for sexual prodigiousness often manifests in the shape of herpes, gonorrhea, genital warts, chlamydia, etc. Others are not so fortunate and leave Thailand with much more than a promise and erotic memories to keep them going through the year. Some take home an incurable disease. Whilst caught in the carnal mayhem on my last visit to Bangkok I met a young British man who'd previously contacted Citylife and wanted to tell his story of how he is paying for a few nights of unrestrained lust a few years ago.

Mark, like many men here in Thailand, came on holiday for a few weeks and ended up falling in love with the country and the people (mostly the girls he admits). He took a TEFL course, found a job in Bangkok at a government school and was suddenly thrust into what he thought was temporal heaven. Somewhat nervous and apprehensive he takes a seat with me outside a coffee shop on Sukhumvit Soi 3. A large framed man, he could be mistaken for a body builder; I was, for obvious, if not ignorant reasons, expecting a sickly, frail man. Mark has been HIV positive for five years.

"Maybe I was just unlucky, I can only remember sleeping with three girls without a condom the whole time I was here. In hindsight I do remember falling quite ill after I'd slept with one girl, the last unprotected sex I ever had with a casual partner," Mark tells me, glancing upwards into his thought bubble as if still trying to locate the very night he contracted the disease. Once you are infected your immune system weakens after about two to six weeks and symptoms can include a flu-like illness (primary HIV infection); after that your immune system revitalises to control the HIV virus. "Years later I never even thought about that night, I had a regular girlfriend and things were going well. But about four years later I started to feel lethargic on a regular basis, and then I discovered lumps on the glands under my armpits. I knew nothing about HIV at the time, and other than that I felt in good shape. Still, to be sure I went for a medical." Mark explained that his medical reported that he was in fine health, although his immune system indicators showed a slight sign of abnormality. So it was after this, and talking to a friend, that Mark decided to get a HIV test.

"When the nurse came down to give me my results she said they would have to test again, I wasn't really sure why, then two hours later another nurse approached me smiling and handed me an envelope. As I was walking through the door I opened it, not really thinking I'd be infected - the nurse seemed so happy - then I saw the word POSITIVE. Strangely enough, at the time, I just thought positive, yeah, that must be a good thing. I was fooling myself - my heart started beating and I felt pretty light headed. I walked back inside and asked her, 'Does this mean I have HIV?' she told me yes, it does, and referred me to a doctor."

Mark's consultation with the doctor consisted of very little, only that the results were 95% accurate. Mark informed me that there was no counselling, no advice and zero support so he returned to the UK where he received comprehensive advice from his GP. "I guess in Thailand it's not such a big deal," said Mark passively, "Funny thing is I accepted it quite quickly, in fact, after I found out I had the best night's sleep in a long time. I think somewhere in my mind I always knew something was wrong . . . the worst thing by far was telling my girlfriend. We'd been together about a year and she'd lost her virginity to me. She'd trusted me, had been sleeping with me, and I thought for sure I must have given it to her."

Mark took her to a quiet spot that night and broke the news. She took it quite well, deciding there and then to get a test right away. "I remember waiting in the car . . . that was definitely the worst hour of my entire life; going through all the scenarios in my head of how we'd deal with this. We'd been having unprotected sex for a year, how could she not have it? When she got in the car she started crying and I thought it must be positive, but then she told me it was negative. In a way I think she was crying for me, that I'd have to go through this alone. I have to say, she's never once blamed me for what happened. She's always been there. We are still together now and things are going well. Of course we take all precautions when we have sex and she takes a test every three months."



HIV and Chiang Mai

After speaking with Mark I interviewed Dr. Tasana Leausaree, sub director of disease control, Chiang Mai. She informed me that infecting another person with the virus is not guaranteed with a single sexual encounter, or maybe a succession of encounters, and there are other couples, similar to Mark and his girlfriend, where the infection has not been passed to the partner, though it's not common. (The correct term used in medical terminology for this situation is 'Discordance Couple'. Despite transmittance being somewhat arbitrary, the sheer amount of people having unprotected sex propagates the disease quickly. The doctor explained that HIV/AIDS is a major problem for Chiang Mai and the North of Thailand. In Chiang Mai alone there's been 70,000 recorded cases of AIDS, with 30,000 of those cases already deceased, in the last twenty years. The remaining 40,000 are still alive and receiving treatment. The amount of HIV positive cases is thought to be much higher, though there is no report at the moment citing exactly what that number is. When you consider that there's around 1.6 million people living in Chiang Mai Province, that's a large percentage with HIV/AIDS.

The difference between HIV positive and AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is simply when the HIV carrier contracts one of twenty-eight life threatening diseases listed by the WHO (World Health Organisation), or when the carrier's CD4 T-cell count (a marker for the efficacy of the immune system) drops below 200 cells/mm3. Most people will have a CD4 cell count between 500-1000. As in Mark's case, symptoms of HIV infection could be swollen glands, although there are many other signs and symptoms, such as chronic diarrhoea lasting months at a time, a persistent cough, mouth infections and skin rashes, although these ailments could also be something far more benign. What makes the disease even harder to detect is that these symptoms could take anywhere from three to ten years to manifest depending on the carrier, so you may be HIV positive a long time before any kind of symptoms arises. These days if you initiate antiretroviral treatment in time the risk of AIDS is significantly reduced.

"In the past, in the absence of antiretroviral drugs, people with AIDS would die rapidly but since the inception of the Universal Health Coverage in Thailand all patients now have access to these life saving drugs through the Thai GPO (Government Pharmaceutical Organisation)," said Dr. Tasana. Recently Bill Clinton (the Clinton Foundation) backed Thailand's decision to award compulsory licences to generic brands of anti-HIV/Aids drugs, which has caused a stir with some of the big drug makers abroad who stand to lose out financially due to patent breaking, though without these cheaper generic brands made here most Thais would not be able to afford treatment. Antiretroviral drugs suppress viral replication as long as the patient continues treatment in the correct manner. Nowadays the VCT (Voluntary Counselling and Testing) is also available in support for people who in the past had no means of understanding the causes and consequences of HIV. Despite all the efforts of the disease control centre, HIV, after a long curtailment of infection in the '90s is now on the rise again, mostly in the younger generation who missed out on the government's fight against HIV campaign back when Thailand was quickly becoming one of the world's worst affected countries. The doctor highlighted the occurrence of HIV in specific groups, "Through yearly surveillance we have found out that currently approximately 14% of direct (brothel, bar) and 2.1% of indirect (escorts), sex workers in Chiang Mai are HIV positive, we also found 1.03 % of pregnant women to be positive and 0.3 % of blood donors. Some people think that infection is mostly transferred through homosexual sex or intravenous drug use, but this is not true - 80% of infection is the result of heterosexual sex." She also showed me a chart of occupational occurrence which stated that 50% of HIV carriers in Chiang Mai work in some kind of manual labour and 30% in agriculture, though much of the time when a man becomes infected after promiscuous sojourns he will return to his wife and infect her. Dr. Vivian Ball, currently an HIV researcher in Chiang Mai, explained to me that the HIV patients attending out-patient clinics are not the stereotypical patients people assume, but include members from all sections of the community.

What's quite incomprehensible is that the disease centres have problems testing many sexual workers as prostitution is illegal in Thailand, and as with drug users, prostitutes are unwilling to come forward and take the test for fear of arrest or police harassment. Most forms of establishments in the sex industry will stipulate that the girls must show a clean bill of health, although it's easy for the girls to move to another place if she has been found to be infected. Improvement lies in government control and regular testing laws in these establishments, but as prostitution is not legal it's hard to take such measures.

"If you have unprotected sex, then take the test. There are no laws against HIV, no one will ask you to leave Thailand, and although you will have to pay for your CD4 cell count test and possibly the antiretroviral drugs if you need them, these days it is all very affordable," was Dr. Tasana's encouraging conclusion. Looking askance from the social hyperbole, contacting HIV is not the death sentence many people self diagnose, though what may be more debilitating and devastating than a stricken immune system is the stigma that haunts the disease.



Living Underground

Mark sat across from me outside the coffee shop, both of us tacitly taking note of the astronomical amount of 'short timers' passing by. "Since I was diagnosed I've never had any extreme illnesses, I may have been infected five years now, and I feel perfectly healthy. My CD4 count is about 350 cells so I don't need to start any drugs yet. It's really a mental issue rather than a physical issue. When I first knew I had it I just felt…stupid for contacting it and dirty, diseased, for having it. My gums might bleed when I brushed my teeth and I'd spend ages cleaning down the sink, I thought I could give it to anyone. Even now, sharing cups, or when someone asks for a drink from my can, I just feel I shouldn't, although medical experts do say there's no way of infecting someone like that.

"I actually feel ok though, even better than before I took the test. It's weird but the lethargy and swollen glands are not there anymore. HIV is definitely a stigma disease, I remember the doctor telling me in the UK to treat it like a book: take it off the shelf when you get your check ups and then try and forget about it." Mark explained the difficulty of this, as everywhere he goes, there's a constant, ubiquitous reminder in all forms of media and it's a regular awkward conversation topic with friends and acquaintances of his that he hasn't told. "It's like whenever I see the word POSITIVE it reminds me of it, makes me feel bad. There's something every day to bring me down. Even though my girlfriend is a pillar of strength, we still try to ignore it when HIV is mentioned on TV, I suppose there's just no point in always bringing it up."

Mark has not been able to tell his parents because of what it would do to his mother and brother. "They are of the old school belief when it comes to HIV, I just don't want my mother to think badly of me. I know she'd support me, but is it really worth it, to have her worrying day and night about my health when I feel fine?" He smiles ironically, "And what if the neighbours find out that little Mark is a dirty HIV carrier, no, I couldn't do that to my family."

There are a multitude of reasons why this painful stigma is compounded and propelled. Having to check the HIV box on application forms and visa applications makes you feel like "a danger to society, an outlaw, just because you are sick" - it's possibly the only disease that generates such scant sympathy and inferred criminality. Quite poignantly Mark added, "Before I found out I was infected I used to play out the scenario in my head, 'What would you do if you were HIV positive?' and I used to tell myself that I'd down a bottle of whisky and drive a motorbike head on into a wall. Obviously I didn't do that. After all this time it bothers me less, it's really not as much a disaster as most people think it is. I mean, I'd still encourage people to have safe sex. Looking around here," - he views the panorama of men and their consorts skulking back to their hotels - "you have to wonder how many people are being infected everyday. Maybe I was unlucky, just a couple of one night stands was enough. Things have changed in my life, but I still have a girlfriend and I'm reasonably happy. We're gonna have kids through something they call 'sperm washing' where the virus is taken out of the sperm. I've met people in HIV chat rooms who really dwell on it, almost like there's a clique of people out there who don't want to get on with life. And the reason is not because they are sick, it's because they have to live with just knowing they have the disease that everyone fears. Like they have the plague and should remain locked up behind a door marked with an X. It's just a disease, and I got it from the most natural act in the world; now that I know I have it, I'm not going to put anyone else at risk . . . that it's stigmatised so much is the worst part of it by far."

HIV/AIDS is an immune system disease; what you finally die of (if you don't take the medication) could be any number of maladies from pneumonia to colon cancer. The stark difference being that those diseases are not tainted by social stigma and people refrain from indicting them as transgressive or immoral. Because the HIV carrier most probably contracted their disease from having sex, from making love, or for many of our readers, 'having a good shag', they are labelled far worse than someone who is dying of, say, heart disease, and therefore must keep it quiet because of the implications. Many HIV carriers are children, they didn't even make the choice to have unprotected sex or share a needle loaded with heroin. Many others are cheated housewives whose only mistake was to marry their husbands. And some people, as in the case of Mark, wanted to have sex with someone without a condom. Even though he may have made a personal mistake that night, he definitely did not commit a social or moral crime, and he doesn't deserve the treatment that the social stigma incites. Are we really still that coy and regressive when it comes to our desire for carnal knowledge? After all, Sodom and Gomorrah existed solely because we existed, because there are people here that enjoy their so called vices and are by nature promiscuous. If they are unfortunate enough to contract HIV then so be it, but why rank them with the rats? For how long will HIV have to remain the secret illness?



by James Austin Farrell

from chiangmainews.com

Wife convicted of infecting husband with HIV

A stripper who knowingly infected her husband of eight years with HIV should spend the rest of her life behind bars, the victim says. "I got a life sentence, why can't she?" asked the husband, who only wants to be identified as P.W. because he fears the stigma of the disease.

The case, believed to the first of its kind in Canada, came before the Toronto courts on Tuesday for a sentencing hearing. The judge lifted a publication ban on Tuesday, allowing the identity of the wife, Suwalle Iamkhong, to be made public.

"The legal system should not cover up for any criminal," P.W. said after the ruling.

Iamkhong, a landed immigrant from Thailand, was convicted of aggravated assault causing bodily harm last month for knowingly infecting her husband. The court heard the couple met at a downtown strip club in 1997 and had what the victim describes as eight good years of marriage.

Iamkhong knew she had HIV but never revealed that to her husband until March 2004 when she developed full-blown AIDS, requiring hospitalization and forcing her to disclose the illness.

"To this day I still say it, 'Why?'" P.W. asked outside court. "I cared about her, I wanted the best for her and gave her the best." P.W. hasn't spoken to Iamkhong since he was diagnosed with HIV. The victim says he is isn't divorcing from his wife until she is sentenced later this month.

P.W. hasn't had to take any the retroviral drugs yet and does not suffer any adverse effects yet.

The Crown is asking for a prison term of three years, while the defense is asking for a term of house arrest.

- CTV (Canada)


Suwalle Iamkhong hurries past cameras outside the courthouse.
CTV


'I got a life sentence, why can't she?' asked the husband, who only wants to be identified as P.W. because he fears the stigma of the disease.
CTV

Ajarn skrev:
Skræmmende så stor en procentdel, ifølge afstemningsresultatet, som aldrig har fået foretaget en HIV-test.
Og dette er blandt Thailandsrejsende...

Nogen må have dårlig samvittighed!

Selv bliver jeg testet med mellemrum, selvom jeg ikke har mange skiftende partnerer

Ajarn
Indlæg nr: 36
Medlem



Antal indlæg: 467
Bopæl: Beton junglens paradisiske mangfoldighed
Tilmeldt: 14.10.05 Lagt på d. 18-11-2006 14:49

Mine 3 aar i Thailand x antal partnere =

Kunne vaere man skulle blive testet!

Ajarn skrev:
Skræmmende så stor en procentdel, ifølge afstemningsresultatet, som aldrig har fået foretaget en HIV-test.
Og dette er blandt Thailandsrejsende...

Nogen må have dårlig samvittighed!

Ajarn skrev:

N.B. Min nye kæreste har både hus og bil og så tjener hun næsten lige så meget som jeg gør. Vi mødtes på vores arbejdsplads.
Det sker nok også at vi gifter os inden så længe.

Ajarn skrev:

Hvad er pointen???

Ingen steder står der noget om hvor mange partnerer jeg har haft.

Men kan da oplyse at jeg havde den samme kæreste i 2,5 år.
Var netop kommet ud af det forhold da jeg skrev indlægget d.18.11.06

Og jeg bliver testet med mellemrum...

Men bevares deepseadivers, alle kan jo falde i vandet, jeg dykker bare ikke så dybt som du gør!

N.B. Min nye kæreste har både hus og bil og så tjener hun næsten lige så meget som jeg gør. Vi mødtes på vores arbejdsplads.
Det sker nok også at vi gifter os inden så længe.

Kom bare med mere, du har jo alligevel ikke andet indhold i livet...

Ajarn citat:
Men bevares deepseadivers, alle kan jo falde i vandet, jeg dykker bare ikke så dybt som du gør!