Feature Story

On 1 December 2006, UNAIDS joined with a broad range of UN and Thai partners to organize a World AIDS Day event with a difference.

As well as hosting a packed celebration event, Thailand captured international attention with an attempt to create the world’s longest chain of condoms.

And at the end of March, confirmation arrived—at 2,715 metres long, the condom chain sets a new Guinness World Record™.

The tying of the world’s longest chain of condoms was one of the events of the “Condom Chain of Life Festival”, a unique celebration of World AIDS Day, held at Lumpini Park in Bangkok. The festival was organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Bangkok in collaboration with the Thai Red Cross, PLAN Thailand, UNAIDS and local NGOs as part of efforts to promote the acceptance of condoms, emphasize the need for safe sex, and encourage strengthening of national policies for comprehensive treatment, care and support for people living with and affected by HIV.

UNAIDS Special Representative Senator Mechai Viravaidya, well known for his groundbreaking HIV prevention efforts in Thailand, led the tying of the chain.

Here, UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Thailand, Patrick Brenny, tells (click on link below to listen to the interview) www.unaids.org about how the World Record attempt came about and its importance to the Thai AIDS response.