For many of our listeners, HIV and its prevention messages would have formed part of their lives – either through a lived experience or the general sexual health education here in Australia. But in some countries, there is a whole generation of Young Men who have Sex with Men that have no experience with HIV, little awareness and poor access to support. Tonight we look at those aged 15-24 in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand where a perfect storm may be brewing.
APCOM – the Asia Pacific Coalition for Men’s Sexual Health – is a not-for-profit organisation working across 35 Asia-Pacific countries on HIV and other health issues of men who have sex with men. They released their latest Pulse Up! report looking at the views of young people in Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Selvan Antony is their Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and Bright Thisanut is their Campaigns Officer. They joined us from Bangkok to speak about the report.