ARV drugs need to be priced lower in Burma
Thu 12 Jul 2007
Banyol Kin, IMNA

Burma is one of the worst in terms of HIV prevalence in Southeast Asia. But few have access to scarce Anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs and most are unable to buy it, according to HIV activist HIV in Burma.

  "Even those that have access to ARV, given their income, they are unable to buy the drug regularly," said a doctor who did not want to be identified.

  Affected people have been pleading for free Anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs but all of them cannot avail it so some still die unable to buy the drug, said a woman whose husband died of HIV in Mon State.

  "Many rural people have no awareness of HIV and do not know about ARV," the activist said and added that if some one is infected by HIV he or she just waits to die. 

  There are 1.3 percent adults infected by HIV in the country which has a population of about 350,000 people. And an estimated 67,000 people are in need of ARV while about 60,000 are receiving the drug, according UNAIDS in Burma.  

  Funding for HIV is done by a limited number of international donors. The Burmese Ministry of Health's expenditure on HIV is low. No official figures exist, but the UNAIDS Country Office estimate that in 2005 the Ministry of Health spent US$ 137,000 on HIV, which works out to less than half of US $ 0.01 per person. This compares with US $ 1.43 per person in Thailand and US $ 0.07 in Cambodia, the other two high-prevalence countries in Southeast Asia, according UNAIDS reports.

  Government public health infrastructures are weak and receive little funding, domestically or internationally. There are insufficient human resources, infrastructure and equipment, the report added.

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