Médecins
Sans Frontières (MSF), the largest provider of HIV treatment in Myanmar,
released a report today highlighting the urgency of treating HIV and multi-drug
resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in their country - Myanmar used to be called Burma.
As many as 85,000 people are going without
retroviral treatments and another 9,300 are infected with MDR-TB each year,
while as few as 300 get any treatment.
The document, entitled Lives in the Balance,
highlights the terrible backlash that cancellation of funding from the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is likely to have on the country and the
well being of its population. The worry is of course that without treatment
these aggressive and difficult-to treat-diseases start to become more endemic
and spread more rapidly. With no expansion to current programs planned up to
and including 2014, this is a real concern.
Peter Paul de Groote, Head of Mission, MSF
Myanmar said :
"Yet again, donors have turned their
backs on people living with HIV and TB in Myanmar ... Everyday we at MSF are
confronted with the tragic consequences of these decisions: desperately sick
people and unnecessary deaths."
In Myanmar, some 15 to 20,000 HIV infected
people die each year of AIDS, almost entirely due to lack of access to
antiretroviral drugs, while MDR-TB is at infection rates more than three times
the global average, putting the country in the top 30 for the disease. MDR-TB
has the same airborne transmission as regular TB, but it is far more complex
and lengthy to treat as medicines don't work well against the infection. More
worryingly, perfectly healthy people can easily be infected with MDR-TB.
MSF's Dr Khin Nyein Chan:
"Without increased availability of
treatment, HIV and TB will continue to spread unchecked in many areas. The time
to treat is now ... There is a real opportunity here; HIV prevalence rates in
Myanmar are relatively low. It is lack of access to treatment that makes it one
of the most serious epidemics in Asia."
Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in
Asia and has a terribly underfunded public health system, and is one of the
lowest recipients of Official Development Aid in the world. Political reform is
beginning to take place, which hopefully opens up an opportunity for the
international community to engage the issues facing healthcare in Myanmar
before the situation gets out of hand.
de Groote concluded :
"The maths is simple. Rapidly scaling up
HIV and TB treatment now will prevent further transmission and save both lives
and money. Less people infected means fewer lives lost, and less people in need
of treatment ... It is critical that donors help Myanmar ensure more patients
across the country can receive treatment for HIV and MDR-TB."
Rupert Shepherd
Medical News Today
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