Thailands ARV treatment programme and drug users.

Thailand is on the brink of becoming the next middle income country - after Brazil - to demonstrate the possibility of universal access to treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS (see Box). While political commitment to treatment and affordable accessible drugs are fundamental factors in a national treatment plan the ultimate key to a successful treatment roll-out programme is to ensure the full participation of PLWHA. They are a key human resource in the treatment infrastructure. Yet a number of factors persist in blocking an ideal government-civil society partnership. The marginalisation and discrimination of certain groups such as drug users (and particularly injecting drug users) is one of them. (authors)