An HIV-infected man is carried into the stadium

The purported miracle cure has not been independently tested.

Critics say there is no proof it works and have accused the manufacturers of giving false hope to Thailand's estimated one million HIV-positive people.

The manufacturers defied calls to cancel the mass distribution, after two HIV sufferers reportedly died at a similar event last weekend.

Scores of nursing staff were on hand to provide emergency care for sufferers, many of whom had travelled hundreds of kilometers to obtain a week's worth of pills.

'Guinea pigs'

Thai pharmacologist Vichai Jirotthi-tikal, who invented the VI tablet, says the treatment eliminated the virus in two patients and that symptoms have been eased in others.

But critics say innocent people are being used as guinea pigs to test the drug, which contains calcium, magnesium and traces of the virus itself.

United Nations Aids experts says medical records supplied by the manufacturer show no evidence the treatment works.

Dr Wiwat Rojanapithayakorn, head of the UN Aids office in Bangkok, said: "When I looked at the laboratory data of the patients claimed to be improving from this drug, I found that the figures were even much worse than before treatment.

"I think some psychological belief makes infected people feel better, but it's not some miracle drug. There is no drug to cure the disease."

The Thai government says it does not support claims that the drug cures Aids.

But, wary of angering HIV sufferers who see the pill as a miracle cure, health authorities have agreed to launch a study of the controversial treatment.