Fridae

The V-1 Immunator controversy gets hotter still. Critics charge that makers and supporters of the pill have made exaggerated claims about its effectiveness. Police General Salang Bunnag, who chairs the demurely named Salang Bunnag Foundation which distributes the pills through its clinic, on the other hand, claims it's a cure for Aids and a "historical success," according to the Bangkok Post.

A variety of groups - Access, an HIV/Aids activist group, the Aids Prevention Center, and the Foundation for Consumers, filed a complaint with the police last Thursday over those broad claims, and others. They asserted that Dr. Montri Sethabutr, who heads the clinic in Chachoengsao Province, and pharmacist Vichai Jirathikarn, who invented the remedy, intended to deceive the public with flawed advertisements about the effectiveness of their recipe.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration, yet to certify V-1 Immunator as a drug, continues to treat it as a food - fine for consumption, but without proven medicinal powers.

The Thai Red Cross Society and the Medical Sciences Department found that "a few" people who took the pills - made of common minerals and the dead remains of HIV cultures - over an extended period showed a reduced viral load, The Post said.

This is a hopeful sign, far from proving that it is a cure - but this weekend, in what appears to be an attempt to poke the controversy even more assertively in the public eye, Police General Salang's organization distributed 3,000 free kits, each containing a one-week supply, at Thai-Japanese Stadium near the capitol. More than 4,000 HIV-positive people showed up hoping for the handout, however, some waiting by the gate overnight, and many went home empty handed.

Kristy Gibson, a western performer of Thai country music, put in an appearance. She performed for the patients, and gave a donation to the group supporting the handout. Luang Po Koon Parisuto, abbot of Wat Banrai in Nakhon Ratchasima, something of a celebrity himself, was also on hand, the Post said. Police and volunteers distributed food and drinks to patients and staff while doctors checked, and registered, sufferers and issued the kits.

But not everyone went home cured as they had hoped. One, in the last stages of Aids, died on the way to the stadium, and another died waiting in line.

In spite of the controversy, the Ban Bang Pakong clinic will continue to distribute the concoction free of charge.