It would be interesting and informative to read an account of how the plan progressed.
Jamie
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Government to expand reach of HIV services
Yamon Phoo Thit
Myanmar Times
Sunday, 29 September 2013
Services for HIV/AIDS sufferers will be decentralised this year to reach more people across the country, a government official said.
The decentralisation plan aims to provide HIV care and treatment services such as voluntary blood tests, pre- and post-test counselling and anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to people in remote areas, said Dr Myo Thant, Yangon Region officer of the National AIDS Program (NAP).
The services, now available at about 55 sites in big cities, will be extended to regional towns and rural areas. “We have a capacity-building program for healthcare providers at each level to expand the services,” Dr Myo Thant told the 7th National PLHIV forum on September 23.
About 30 new sites will be opened this year, and more than 100 more by 2015. A nationwide expansion of ART sites will get under way this year, Dr Myo Thant said. “About 17 new ART sites in general hospitals and seven ART teams will be expanded from this year until 2015.”
Of the estimated 120,000 people living with HIV who are in need of ART, more than 50,000 people, or about 48 percent, are receiving treatment. NAP is aiming to reach more than 100,000 people, or 85pc, by 2016, to enable them to get treatment.
Some of the funding will come from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria, which will provide more than US$315 million for Myanmar’s response to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria over the next four years, of which more than half will go toward HIV.
Ko Myo Thant Aung, chair of Myanmar Positive Group, said under the current, highly centralised system, patients from rural areas have to spend significant amount of money to seek treatment in urban areas.
“It was a waste of time, money and energy,” he said. “So this is a great plan for people living with HIV, but we still have to see how effective it will be.”
He also warned that some patients prefer to travel from their homes for treatment so they can hide the infection from other members of their community.
“There are some patients who dare not to reveal to others in their area that they are HIV-positive because they are scared of discrimination. They won’t want to take medicine in their home region.”
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/8298-government-to-expand-reach-of-hiv-services.html
