Boripat Donmon, of Thailand, couldn't believe AIDS would ever appear in his country - and that he would become infected.
"Twenty years ago, I associated AIDS with Europe and Africa. I never thought it would appear on the Asian continent," he said. "About 10 years later, I realized I had it."
Donmon, who spoke in Huntsman Hall yesterday at the invitation of the University's chapter of Oxfam - an international aid organization - is traveling the United States, saying that free trade is hurting AIDS patients by forcing up the price of needed drugs.
"I stopped taking medication for AIDS about a year ago," he said. "If I don't get medicine, in a year or two, I will get sick again."
Speaking through a translator, Donmon said he thought about ending his life when he discovered he was infected with HIV, but he chose a different path.
"I began to look everywhere to educate myself in hopes of finding a treatment," he said. "I discovered there were medicines around the world to prevent AIDS, but Thailand didn't have any."
Donmon, who did not say how he contracted HIV, told his audience about the difficulty of obtaining antiretrovirals - the drugs that keep AIDS at bay - in Thailand.
He said the state subsidizes $125 of the cost for these medicines, and that it is left to him to cover the remaining $300. Donmon said that he, like many Thai citizens, makes the equivalent of only $175 a year.
"With a system like that, I don't have a chance," he said.
Donmon said he blames free trade and medical patents for the steep prices, and with the U.S.-Thailand Free Trade Agreement currently under negotiation and headed for approval, he fears that the situation for Thai citizens living with HIV/AIDS will only get worse.
"I'm here in America because these trade negotiations are not fair. They are negotiating over people's lives," he said.
If passed, the agreement under negotiation would extend the terms of medical patents and would prevent drugs imported from the United States from being resold in Southeast Asia, according to a pamphlet handed out at the event.
College freshman Emma Buckhout, one of the crowd of about 30, said she found Donmon's account "amazing."
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