Dr Tun Nyunt Oo contradicts Suu Kyi's assertion that HIV related deaths were halved in one year.
She said: "within one year, deaths from HIV were halved" http://bit.ly/2xgpg9G. He says they were almost halved in six years. 14,000 deaths in 2010 to 8,000 death in 2016.
Good to see the governmental financial contribution for the national response to HIV has been increased. This is a condition for funding by the Global Fund.
Jamie
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Budget to achieve AIDS targets tripled
Myint Kay Thi
Myanmar Times
04 Oct 2017
By tripling its budget for an AIDS programme, the government aims to achieve its “90-90-90 global targets” in the National Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS (2016-2020).
The plan’s objective is to know the status of 90 percent of people living with HIV; to make sure that 90pc of people aware they are living with HIV get treated; and that 90pc of people living with HIV get treatment to suppress viral loads.
The government allocated US$15 million for AIDS program during the 2017-2018 financial years but tripled it last year, according to National AIDS Program.
“The 2016-2017 budget allocated $5 million to the cause and now the government contributed $15 million for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, including anti-retroviral therapy (ART), blood test for kids and CD4 reagent,” said Dr Tun Nyunt Oo, program manager of National AIDS Program, Department of Public Health.
HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programs are funded by the government, the Global Fund and national and international organisations.
Dr Tun Nyunt Oo said the government allocation has been increasing gradually since 2011. Before 2011, the budget for HIV/AIDS program was very low and government only contributed two to three percent for the funding of the response program.
By promoting awareness program, the government managed to reduce new HIV infection rate from an estimated 35,000 cases in 2000 to 11,000 in 2016, according to National AIDS Program.
Moreover, AIDS-related death declined by 52 percent in six year, from 14,000 deaths in 2010 to 8,000 death in 2016.
“These data show our current achievements. This is both due to public awareness improvement and increasing of allocated funds,” said Dr Tun Nyung Oo.
According to the National Strategic Plan, priority will be given to 85 first selected townships, then 151 medium priority townships and finally 94 low priority townships – to promote its health agenda.
“In the first priority areas, we will implement one stop service,” he said.
Dr Tun Nyung Oo added that Myanmar aims to end AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.
The estimated number of people living with HIV in Myanmar is nearly 230,000, of which nearly 60pc or 127,000 patients already have access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy in 2016.
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/budget-achieve-aids-targets-tripled.html
