Thais Clamor for AIDS 'Miracle Drug' Ahead of Distribution Halt

More than 7,000 AIDS sufferers, weary after hours of travel to the Thai capital, arrived at a Bangkok police station over the weekend to receive what has been hailed as a swift "cure" for AIDS. The mass pill handout was the second in a few days by the Salang Bunnag Foundation, where agency representatives announced Sunday that they would temporarily stop the distribution to give health officials time to consider regulations for the drug.

The purported "miracle cure" called "V-1 Immunitor" has touched off a storm of controversy among AIDS activists and Thai officials. "We're going to suspend distribution for three weeks and give the public health ministry time to decide," said Aldar Bourinbair, an AIDS researcher who works for Salang Bunnag.

The drug's inventor, Thai pharmacist Vichai Jirathitikal, said that he used minerals and traces of the HIV virus as ingredients and had been administering the drug for several years with great success. But AIDS activist Sen. Jon Ungphakorn said, "There is nothing clear about V-1 Immunitor pills. We don't know what V-1 is really made of, how it is manufactured and what effects it has on someone's health."

One million people of Thailand's 60 million people are believed to have been infected with HIV, and 300,000 have died.

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