How big is the spread of the HIV virus in Phuket, Patong, is it a big problem over there as in many other less rich countries? I mean, how safe is it to be with girls over there, many reports of HIV infection? /QUOTE]
Nobody really knows for sure whether it is a big problem in Phuket. On the one end of the debate(which has been conducted many times on this forum), you have Big Al, who claims that rates of infection are very high on Phuket, that he know several farang men who have it, and that a lot of BGs have it. According to him the rates are soaring because now a BG can get the anti-HIV drugs that can keep the infection from showing up, so that they can live a very normal life while being HIV+. But because of that(according to Al), you have a lot of BGs who need to make the money to buy the pills. Prior to effective HIV drugs, they would start to get symptoms, then go to their village and wait for the end to come. Now, they must stay and work to pay for medicine, because there is no other way they can make enough money for the pills.
Also, Eurogirl claims that the kind of HIV in LOS is primarily subtype E, which(according to her sources) is much more easily passed on through oral sex than the subtype prevalent in Japan, Europe, and the Americas. Therefore, so goes her argument, that HIV is spreading more easily and therefore more rapidly in LOS than other places.
This topic has been hotly debated and there are those who disagree more or less completely with the views of Big Al and Eurogirl, and maintain that they are alarmists and their assertions don't hold up under the weight of known facts, applied logic, and close scrutiny. In this camp, I believe you will find LivinLos, as well as quite a few other BMs.
It is commonly asserted by most that logic dictates that if the situation was really as dangerous as some would have us think, then the numerous guys that have bareback sex with BGs would be coming down with HIV left and right, whereas there are only two confirmed reports(outside of Big Al's), that I am aware of, of this happening. One is a friend of Richie007's friend, who took a BG back to Australia, and it turned out she had HIV then he was tested and got it also, presumably from her. The other was from a nurse in England who works with numerous HIV patients, many of whom are hetero men, one of whom thinks that he caught it in LOS.
Also, I would guess that probably about 90% of the BMs, who go with BGs, do not use condoms for oral sex. Perhaps we shoud take a poll on that one, as I have no basis for my contention, other than my sense of it.
So, make of it as you will. It is all about the level of risk one is willing to undertake. And yet, with such widely differing opinions, it is not at all easy to accurately assess what the true risk is!
JayBee