Bangkok - Nine times as many Thais have died of AIDS than officially reported, and the worst is still to come, according to a study published yesterday. Mr Alessio Panza, head of the EU's AIDS programme in Bangkok and one of the study's authors, said it showed more than 222,000 Thais had died of the disease since 1985, against just 24,667 deaths reported by the public health ministry.
The study also estimates more than 270,000 Thais have the disease, three times more than the official estimate of 90,637. It found the highest increases occurred in 20- to 24-year-old females in the northern province of Chiang Rai. Many of Thailand's sex workers come from Chiang Rai province, which borders Laos and Burma.