The Myanmar Times has rushed to get their World AIDS Day article published before the end of the year. The third zero in the UNAIDS is about 'no discrimination'. It does not say discrimination only against people living with HIV. It also concerns discrimination against people with a disease of drug dependence, against sexual minorities, and against people who take money for sex.
There are three key actions that can be used against discrimination: 1) antidiscrimination legislation, 2) addressing institutional discrimination and 3) legal redress for those who are discriminated against. None of these are in the new national strategic plan, except perhaps "Reform of Suppression of Prostitution Act, 1949" which appears on page 75 of the big national strategic plan. The plan only calls for a "Favourable Environment for Reducing Stigma and Discrimination", not the reduction of discrimination.
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Ambitious target set in fight against HIV
By Yamon Phu Thit and Cherry Thein
Volume 31, No. 606
December 19 - 25, 2011
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at a World AIDS Day event at the NLD headquarters on December 1.
Pic: AFP
GETTING to “zero” – no new HIV infections, no discrimination and no AIDS-related deaths – is an ambitious but worthy target, those engaged in the fight against HIV say.
The “three zeros” goal was the theme for World AIDS Day 2011, which was marked on December 1. In Myanmar, representatives from the government, United Nations agencies, non-government organisations, civil society groups, self-help networks and community-based organisations attended ceremonies across the country to commemorate the occasion.
Progress has been made in efforts to contain HIV in Myanmar, where an estimated 240,000 people are already infected, and those leading the fight say they are confident progress will continue to be made.
According to the Ministry of Health, there are about 17,000 new infections each year and nearly 20,000 AIDS-related deaths, with probably more than 100,000 people living with HIV in need of anti-retroviral treatment (ART).
“It’s a huge task but it’s not an impossible task. We can get to zero here in Myanmar,” said Ms Audrey Swist, country director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Dr Myint Swe, deputy director of the National AIDS Program, said that while new infections had decreased, more cooperation between all stakeholders was needed.
“It’s impossible to walk alone towards the target. We will only achieve it by working together,” he said.
Dr Sun Gang, country director of UNAIDS, said organisations knew what had to be done to stop the HIV epidemic.
“Out of the three zeros, we can probably see that zero discrimination may be the one that we can achieve first. But all people, including community groups, networks, positive groups, need to actively participate to remove stigma and discrimination and advocate all aspects related to prevention and treatment services.”
A member of Myanmar Positive Group, a self-help group for HIV sufferers, described the current level of discrimination as “brutal”.
“Although people say discrimination is going down, we are still regularly discriminated against,” the person said. “Nobody knows the effect of stigma and discrimination better than people living with HIV.”
Ma Theint Theint Thu, a teenager with HIV, said she had faced discrimination many times. “My parents are dead and I have to live with my aunts and they always make me eat my meals alone. When my teachers found out that I had HIV, they told me I should quit school,” she said at a World AIDS Day ceremony organised by seven self-help networks.
Stigma and discrimination pose the greatest challenges in the response to HIV, Dr Saw Lwin, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Health’s Disease Control Department, said at a workshop on December 5.
“Nowadays there are medicines and treatments for HIV-positive people. It means that they can live normally; if a person with HIV takes medicine properly and follows medical advice closely they can live a normal-length life. However, most of them give up after meeting social stigma and discrimination,” he said.
Held at Parkroyal Hotel in Yangon, the forum focused on ways to achieve the three zeros target and included representatives from the Ministry of Health, UNAIDS, the media, NGOs and self-help groups.
Several of the participants highlighted the important role the media played in shaping public opinion and the possibilities of using this to disseminate information that could reduce discrimination.
“Although awareness programs are increasing, there is still a lot of misunderstanding and stigma about HIV in our society, even among the well educated,” said Daw Naw Shae Wah, a project officer at Myanmar Positive Group. “We would like to collaborate more with media to send our voice, information, facts and feelings to the public. We need to scale up these awareness programs in the future with the help of the media.”
Dr Saw Lwin said the media could also contribute to the national HIV/AIDS response by mobilising different sectors of the local and international community.
“One word or action from the media is more effective than 10 words from the ministry … we urge print media, electronic media, film stars and sport stars to come and contribute to the response to this disease, which is increasingly a national concern,” he said.
Pyithu Khit editor U Pe Myint said that while domestic publications were increasingly covering public health issues, journalists wanted to see greater cooperation from the health authorities.
“HIV is a major global issue and journalists are keen to collect information for our articles [on this topic] but sometimes its hard to get it because of a lack of transparency,” he said.
Another issue is provision of ART. While the number of people receiving ART has increased from just 5639 in 2006 to more than 30,000 in 2010, this represents only about 30 percent of those who need it.
“Poor people cannot afford to buy ART, which costs about K300,000 a year so they have to rely on organisations like us,” said U Myo Lwin, an executive committee member of Ratanna Metta Organisation. “Most of our donors are from abroad and we can’t fully rely on them because situations can change. We want to see more local donors.”
But Ma Naw Darl Al, a member of Myanmar Positive Group, said the “three zeros” should not be looked at individually.
“There is a correlation between them. New infections will reduce if there is no discrimination. If there is no new infection, AIDS-related deaths will decrease,” she said.
http://www.mmtimes.com/2011/news/606/news3160613.html
