It is good that Daw Suu chose HIV as one of the first health and education issues she made a statement on by going to a safe house.
There is a factual inaccuracy in the story. Waigbagi and AZG are not the only institutions providing antiretroviral treatment in Yangon. There are many organisations providing treatment for people living with HIV. If any HIV professional working in Yangon sends the [him] moderator a list of all places where antiretroviral treatment is available he will post it.
Oh, there is another error. The 2009 estimate of people living with HIV is 238,000.
[him] moderator
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Suu Kyi Visits HIV/AIDS 'Safe House'
Ko Htwe
Irrawaddy
Thursday, November 18, 2010
“I never dreamed I'd meet Aung San Suu Kyi, she has given me new energy,” said 28-year-old Thi Thi Aye after the Nobel Prize laureate visited a Rangoon “safe house” for HIV-AIDS sufferers on Wednesday.
Thi Thi Aye is one of more than 70 residents of the South Dagon Township home, which is run by youth members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
“Suu Kyi asked us how our daily life is and how we are treated,” said Thi Thi Aye. “She talked to all the patients and she gave me flowers. She is like a mother to me, I love her so much.”
Suu Kyi spent nearly one hour at the center, which is one of three run by the NLD in South and North Dagon Townships. Residents are provided with free food and medicine.
One resident, 31-year old Win Win Naing, from Irrawaddy Division, told The Irrawaddy that Suu Kyi had urged him not to lose heart. “She told us she would try to get enough medicine to treat us.”
Phyu Phyu Thin, a well-know HIV/AIDS activist who is the NLD's affiliated welfare group leader, said many problems could be overcome “if Suu Kyi is beside us.”
Suu Kyi could give HIV/AIDS patients greater strength and help relieve their suffering, she said.
Before her last term of house arrest began in 2003, Suu Kyi had initiated NLD work in the field of HIV/AIDS relief but there had been no contact with her since then, Phyu Phyu Thin said.
There was misunderstanding among some critics about the nature of the NLD work, which was not political, Phyu Phyu Thin stressed.
Since early 2007, hospitals and clinics in Rangoon have cut or stopped the supply of ARV drugs because of budget limitations. The only ARV drugs now available in Rangoon are supplied by the Wai Bar Gi (Rangoon Infectious Diseases Hospital) and the AZG clinic, which is funded by the Dutch branch of Médecins sans Frontières.
According to a World Health Organization report in November 2007, there are more than 339,000 people with HIV/AIDS in Burma—one of the highest numbers in Asia.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20108
