THAILAND - The council's subcommittee for professional ethics is set to discuss this issue in its meeting on April 8.

To add to the group's problems, Mahidol University's Ramathibodi Hospital denied doing any blood tests for the group, while the red shirts are threatening to take it to court for "human rights" violations.

The Mahidol Brothers Group, led by Dr Kusol Prawichpaiboon, submitted a letter about the bloodtest results to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva via his deputy secretarygeneral Issara Sunthornwat in Parliament at 1.15pm yesterday.

The group, comprised of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and specialists, said the letter voiced concern for the protesters' health and condemned this method of protest. They claimed to have had the blood samples tested at a Ramathibodi Hospital lab.

Later yesterday, the Medical Council president Somsak Lohlekha said the subpanel for ethics would discuss next week if the group's action could be considered unethical. He also said that those who were splattered by the blood - assuming it had the HIV virus - and later tested HIVpositive, could file a complaint with the council. However, he said, this was unlikely because the virus could not enter the skin, unless it had an open wound.

Permanent Secretary for Public Health Paijit Warachit said Thai nationals who believe they have caught the HIV virus were entitled to antiviral medication. The medication, though, must be taken within 2448 hours of exposure, and affected parties need to undergo blood tests every three months.

He said that there was a higher chance of infection if HIVpositive blood got into one's eyes instead of the mouth, which had saliva to destroy microbes.

Meanwhile, Ramathibodi Hospital's director, Dr Than Supatarapan, said he did not know Dr Kusol, the Mahidol Brothers Group leader, because he did not work at the hospital. In addition, he said, he had inquired with the hospital's Pathology Department and was told that no blood samples had been submitted for tests recently.