ALTSEAN Burma
Burma Issues and Concerns Volume 4
The Security Dimensions
April 2007

excerpt:

HIV/AIDS
The current epidemic in Asia.is really a [Burma] epidemic. It
is in the interests of Asian states to see Myanmar’s HIV epidemic
as a national-security threat. 102 - Laurie Garrett, senior fellow
for Global Health, Council on Foreign Relations, New York
Poverty, high levels of mobility and displacement, low
awareness of family planning and HIV transmission, scarcity of
health care services, a growing sex industry, injecting drug use
and sexual violence are all contributing to the spread of
HIV/AIDS. The SPDC spent less than US$22,000 for the entire
country on treatment and prevention for HIV/AIDS in 2004.103
Five percent of known infections were spread by blood
transfusion.104
The SPDC has recently reported slight decreases in overall
prevalence of HIV/AIDS . down from 1.5% in 2000 to 1.3% in
2006.105 However, experts from John Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health estimated that in mid-2000 there was an
overall prevalence of 3.46%. Since then, failure by authorities to
either take or publish HIV/AIDS surveillance data means that this figure cannot be updated.106
Outside major cities, infection rates vary greatly . from nothing to 7.5%.107 Prevalence rates are
highest in Shan and Kachin States, bordering Thailand and China.
In border towns, trade routes of the trafficking of women, drugs, and disease, intersect. Even
accepting the SPDCs notorious underestimates, the fact that one in three sex workers tested positive
for HIV in Rangoon in 2005, against one in four in 2004, is alarming.108 Injecting drug users in
Lashio, major stop on the trade/trafficking route from Burma to China, have an infection rate of
60%.109
The sexually transmitted infections that increase the risk of contracting and transmitting HIV are
common in Burma. However, detection and treatment are patchy and riddled with misinformation and
misconceptions.110 Access to counseling, medication, and other support services is restricted. AIDS
treatment is highly politicized. Community based initiatives are shut down unexpectedly, and activists
have been imprisoned.111
102 Asia Times (02 Dec 07) Myanmar’s HIV/AIDS security threat Myanmar’s HIV/AIDS security threat
103 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Mar 06) Responding to AIDS, TB, Malaria and Emerging Infectious
Diseases in Burma
104 UNAIDS, Country Assessments, http://www.unaids.org/en/Regions_Countries/Countries/myanmar.asp
105 AP (03 Dec 07) Myanmar junta denies HIV on the rise in the country
106 Beyrer, Suwanvanichkij, Mullany, Richards, Franck, Samuels and Lee (Oct 06) Responding to AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria,
and emerging infectious diseases in Burma
107 UNAIDS, Country Assessments, http://www.unaids.org/en/Regions_Countries/Countries/myanmar.asp
108 In Mandalay in 2003 more than half sex workers tested were infected.
109 Department of Health figures, reported in Times (02 Dec 07) Myanmar’s HIV/AIDS security threat Myanmar’s HIV/AIDS
security threat
110 Sex workers in Rangoon report using penicillin as a .blood purifier. to prevent HIV. Talikowski and Gilliet (2005) Female sex
work in Rangoon
111 DVB (14 Feb 07) Magwe AIDS awareness centre shut down by officials