As usual, here is drug story with problems The Singapore editor who wrote the headline outdid himself, exaggerating one report of a nine year old user and ‘getting hooked’. Use is not hooking. And it looks like Patjasan has stopped due to death threats. If only all human rights abusers stopped. What proportion of methamphetamine […]

Do any readers know of any evidence that #PrEP is effective at preventing bloodborne HIV transmission among people who inject drugs (#PWID). Do any readers know of any evidence that Undetectable = Untransmissible (U=U, #UEqualsU) is effective at preventing bloodborne HIV transmission among people who inject drugs? I’m looking for evidence. Jamie

HIV *prevention* cascades are a great idea. http://www.aidsmap.com/page/3434375/?utm_source=NAM-Email-Promotion&utm_medium=aidsmap-news&utm_campaign=aidsmap-news https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-3018(18)30327-8/fulltext?rss=yes#seccestitle50 Myanmar cannot even produce a care cascade for the public to see https://www.aidsdatahub.org/Country-Profiles/Myanmar so it may be years before a prevention one is made. (BTW Vietnam doesn’t have an official care cascade on the AIDS Data Hub website https://www.aidsdatahub.org/Country-Profiles/Viet-Nam and I was unable to obtain a […]

Methamphetamine use is common in Myanmar and will continue to be so as long as production remains high. Most users do *not* develop methamphetamine use disorder. For those who do, treatment is almost nonexistent. Harm reduction needs to be much more common. A great new report says: “The introduction and scale up of specific harm […]

Here is some qualitative research on men who have sex with men in Myanmar that was conducted three and a half years ago and just published. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-6351-3 Jamie

People who remember Tun Myint may be interested to see what he is up to in Vancouver. https://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/tlc/Documents/pdfs/SFU-Teaching-Stories-2017-18-web.pdf Jamie

There are a lot of numbers in this article on NCDs in Myanmar. Jamie ++++++++++++++++++ About 70 pc of health budget to go to NCD in case of emergency: Minister Eleven Myanmar 19 February 2019 About 70 per cent of the health budget will go to the fund for non-communicable diseases (NCD) in the coming […]

Here are two NCDs jobs at UNOPS in Myanmar. https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=17324 https://jobs.unops.org/Pages/ViewVacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=17325 Time is short. I wonder if the national NCDs strategic plan is finished and approved. It has been in development over two years. Jamie

Are the kilograms of drugs seized correlated with drug use? Methamphetamine seizures may have increased. But I have seen no scientific research demonstrating that methamphetamine use has increased. Jamie ++++++++++++++++++ Why Myanmar can’t shake its drug problem The nation has long been synonymous with drug production, a trend new government policies won’t likely arrest as […]

Time to reshare the NCDs video. https://www.facebook.com/kyannmar/videos/2008341112817754/ Jamie

It must be a challenge to ensure quality with forty freelance doctors serving 3,000 people a day. How is quality assurance done? What medical records are kept? Jamie ++++++++++++++++++ Being online can reduce the distance to a doctor Zon Pann Pwint Myanmar Times 1 February 2019 Myanmar is ranked 190 out of 191 countries on […]

You know that we can’t treat our way out of the HIV epidemic. Test test test test test distracts attention from primary prevention. But harm reduction for methamphetamine is an idea that has long needed promotion. Any initiatives in Myanmar? Jamie ++++++++++++++++++ TESTBKK LAUNCHES HARM REDUCTION RESOURCES FOR THAI MSM Press Release APBCOM undated testBKK, […]