Treatment is a human right and P2T's work is admirable. But globally six people are being infected for every one on treatment. Why do we hear so little about prevention?

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July 31, 2007 (DVB)—High-profile activist and HIV awareness campaigner Phyu Phyu Thin said yesterday that the number of people seeking antiretroviral (ARV) treatment from a small National League for Democracy clinic had doubled in the past month.

Phyu Phyu Thin, an NLD member, was released by the Burmese authorities on July 3 after being held for more than a month without charge. She told DVB that since her release, the number of people seeking help from the small clinic she runs had risen from 30 to 60.

“The HIV and AIDS situation in Burma has always been bad but now the number of patients arriving at our clinic is increasing because most of the hospitals and clinics are telling them to come to us for help,” Phyu Phyu Thin said.

“Before I was arrested we had 30 regular patients and now there are about 60 people waiting outside the door of our clinic each morning,” she said.

Phyu Phyu Thin also told DVB that the number of people in the country in need of the life-saving ARV treatment was about ten times higher than the number actually receiving the medicine.

She said her clinic was faced with a serious shortage of the drugs and that they were only able to afford to help the patients they had.

Reporting by Maung Too

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