Fridae

Adam's Love is a Thai campaign targeting gay and bisexual men.

A study conducted by the Public Health Ministry and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Collaboration have found that long-term statistics from at-risk MSM visiting the Silom Community Clinic has shown a steady increase in HIV infection in the MSM group increase from 24.6% (51 out of 207 men) in 2005 to 29.4% in 2011. The report also cited an emerging risk factor to be the use of methamphetamine, or crystal ice, to prolong sexual intercourse.

The Bangkok Post reported on 7 Jul 2013:

Thirty-four-year-old Ball met his partner Sonchai at high school and the pair started living openly as a gay couple when they roomed together at university.

But eight years ago, Ball, who had been monogamous and loving in the relationship, was shocked to learn his partner had not been. Sonchai had infected Ball with HIV.

"I have only had one sexual partner for 10 years. I was with my boyfriend for more than 10 years," he said.

"I thought we had a really healthy relationship until one day I became very ill. I went to see the doctor and he found that I had TB and oral thrush.

"Then the doctor asked me to test for HIV. I was shocked when I found out I had tested positive.

"I told my partner and he confessed that he was fooling around and having unprotected sex with other people. He told me that he attended many group sex parties and sometimes he did not use a condom. So I took him to see the doctor to get tested and he also tested positive."

Ball's case is typical of a worrying trend of increasing HIV infections in the MSM (Men who have Sex with Men) category described by a 2012 paper as an "explosive epidemic" in Bangkok.

The report – a joint effort by the Public Health Ministry and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Collaboration – based its findings on at-risk men visiting the Silom Community Clinic near Bangkok's red light district for gay and bisexual men.

Despite the perception that those visiting the clinic were restricted to sex workers and their cruising clients, Timothy Holtz, director of the Health Ministry's HIV/STD Research Programme, said many of them were regular men. "From 2005 to 2012, we had 6,526 clients who made 23,600 visits to our clinic," Dr Holtz said. "This group of MSM people, who are regular white collar people ... come to the clinic for free HIV testing as well as other kinds of sexually transmitted diseases, counselling and treatment support."

The report further highlighted that men aged under 24 as the highest risk group for new infections due to factors such as living away from a family home, having more sex than older men, drug taking for sexual pleasure and inconsistent condom use.