Cambodian migrants have the highest rate of HIV
among migrant groups in Thailand for reasons that range from the nature of
their jobs to cultural attitudes towards condoms, Thai health workers said
yesterday.
The results of the recent
Integrated Bio Behavioural Survey by Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health shows
Cambodian migrant workers have an HIV prevalence rate of 2.5 per cent, the
highest of any migrant population in the country.
Thailand’s estimated
adult prevalence is 1.3 per cent, and Cambodia’s is 0.5 per cent.
Raks Thai Foundation
program assistant Domrongphol Sangnanee said the results were “not surprising”.
“Many Cambodian migrant
workers work in the fishery sector, and it’s quite difficult to access workers
to educate them,” Domrongphol said.
“In the case of Laos
[migrants], they don’t work in fisheries, and it’s easy for them to access
material on HIV because the languages are similar.”
Another reason was
Cambodian migrants’ unfamiliarity with condom usage, he said.
Other factors promoting
high rates of HIV among migrant workers in general included language barriers
to understanding HIV information and inability to use government health service
providers.
Concerns over
communicable diseases among Cambodian migrant workers were not high, however,
and the Public Health Ministry was more worried about tuberculosis among the
large percentage of Burmese workers in Thailand.
Registered migrant
workers had to undergo annual health checks and buy health insurance, Domrongphol
said.
Cassandra Yeap
The Phnom Penh Post
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