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1. Anonymous says:

   August 7, 2009 at 7:23 am

   Dear Sir / Madam,
   It is a very good news that many countries and many organizations would like to help Myanmar citizens. Due to the primitive society in Myanmar, many HIV infected patients dare not come to the right center for medical treatment. Society in Myanmar has not modernized yet so that people avoid HIV infected patients. HIV infected patients need moral support as well as medication support. Due to the very poor medical treatments by local doctors, some die without any proper reason. Local doctors, nurses, hospitals, centers, etc., provides very unfriendly atmosphere to all patients. Many people here are lack of education, knowledge and dare not speak openly to what they feel to their doctors, clinics and the medications. Corruption is everywhere and every level in Myanmar. Least number of medication will go into the hands of infected patients and the rest may sell out in the black market. One breast cancer patient for example, was taken medical treatment in Yangon, one of her breast was cut without doing even mammogram or X-ray in one of the private hospitals in Yangon. She then went to Thailand for further treatment. She is an engineer and a government officer. Thai doctors do not know what to do with her because she could not submit her past medical record and she cannot submit the tissue or paraffin wax of the tissue of the breast she cut off in Myanmar. Although there are many medical doctors in Myanmar who graduated from UK or other Western countries or USA, they are very very careless and they do not have any medical ethic. Local doctors with overseas degree are not at all up-to-date with modern medical technology. There are not at all modern high medical technology machines, equipments, etc in throughout Myanmar (eg. Mammogram machine, digital radiation machine). Medication for HIV patients are very complicated. Physicians need to check HIV patient with a great care and decide which level of HIV medication is suitable for that particular patient (according to the HIV blood test result for each patient). Medication for one HIV patient and other HIV patient may not be the same. ARV medication is just a general name for HIV patients. Same level of ARV medication cannot treat for all HIV patients. In Myanmar, many local LABs are totally useless and not at all dependable and reliable. As I said above, the tissue must keep in the paraffin wax and it must keep in a lab at least for one year long, but in Myanmar, no lab keep that even for three months long. Patients who cannot afford to go abroad for medical treatment are same like guinea pigs in Myanmar. These poor conditions are really existing in the most developped city in Myanmar called Yangon. So, what about and how about of the patients who live in the provinces? Many villages do not even have first aid center. In Irrawaddy division for example, the villages between Nga Ting Chaung town and Lay Myat Nhar town (except I tha byu town) do not even have a first aid center and there is no power supply at all. Each hat (each family) does not have own toilet. A few numer of hats have to share one toilet. Due to the language barrier, foreigners cannot speak directly to the local people or infected patients or even if he or she does, he/she cannot get right answer from them because local authorities (government as well as NGOs) already shouted them what to say to the foreigners. People who live in the province are very timid type compared to the city dwellers. Still now, many local people in Myanmar and many foreigners do not know how many NGO hiv treatment centers in Myanmar and Please advise if there is a website to see the location or address of the NGO hiv treatment centers existing in Yangon and throughout Myanmar and how is/are the treatments to the patients . There is no international standard hospital (ISO certified) in Myanmar. We cannot say that a hospital with international standard is just in-terms of the decoration of the hospital rooms only. The treatments, equipments, services provided by all level of hospital staff, etc, etc are also counted. Some people who live in urban area and many people who live in rural area can afford only tradition medicines because it is cheap and description is written in Burmese language. 95 percent of the tradition medicines are not at all internationally recognized (ISO certified). In Thailand, people can buy condoms even in convenience stores like 7Eleven which opens 24 hours. Where to buy and how to buy condoms in Myanmar and can local people afford to buy one or not and they have knowledge to use it or not.

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