Oops. The Myanmar Times staff need even more re-education on HIV issues if they see their role to monitor accuracy and ensure accountability by Ministry officials.
MoH staffer Tun Nyant Oo has made several incorrect assumptions here.
Testing does NOT prevent HIV acquisition. It never has and never will. Testing after risk behaviour cannot prevent infection and populations of people who test negative have not been shown to change their behaviour. Testing may prevent transmission among people who test positive if they increase condom use or get treatment or both. This is possible for only a small proportion of all the people who undergo testing.
The tests will NOT make estimates of the number of people living with HIV more accurate.
BTW does anyone know how many test kits 'the NAP' distributes or needs every year? I have never seen an accounting or an accurate projection figure.
Jamie
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Ministry of Health to distribute HIV test kits
Shwe Yee Saw Myint
Myanmar Times
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
The Ministry of Health plans to distribute 300,000 HIV test kits to rural areas in order to help identify – and contain – the spread of the virus.
“These test kits are for pregnant women and their husbands in rural areas, so they can get HIV tests done,” said Dr Tun Nyant Oo, a spokesperson for the ministry’s HIV department. “Now we are training medical staff, such as midwives, nurses and assistants, on how to use these test kits.”
The program, which began with support from the Global Fund, will see kits distributed to medical staff in 250 of Myanmar’s 330 townships over the next two months.
According to government figures,0.8 percent of pregnant women in Myanmar are infected with HIV.Prevalence nationwide among those aged 15 and over was estimated at 0.53pc in 2011, with 8300 new infections occurring each year and 216,000 people living with the disease.
These numbers may appear high, but Dr Tun Nyant Oo says they are likely to understate the real size of the HIV-infected population – something the new test kits will help to correct by making blood tests possible in more areas of the country.
“This figure cannot show the real number of HIV-infected people in Myanmar because in rural areas there are no blood test centres. People can’t check their blood easily and they don’t know their status themselves,” Dr Tun Nyant Oo added.
While the new kit will make testing for HIV blood antibodies easier than previous tests, the kit will give only preliminary results. For absolute certainty, follow up laboratory tests will be needed.
“After staff have conducted a blood test with the kit, patients will have to bring the blood sample to their nearest township hospital blood test center,” Dr Tun Nyant Oo said.
In some areas, he said, patients can also be tested anonymously at public health department offices.
Regardless of the method used, Dr Tun Nyant Oo said it was important to undergo a follow-up test if the preliminary results indicated a patient was HIV-positive.
“When you get an HIV test done, you either make sure that HIV is something that you do not have and do not have to worry about spreading, or you make sure you seek treatment as soon as possible. There are many benefits to early treatment that can be taken advantage of when HIV is caught in its earliest stages,” he added.
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/6500-ministry-of-health-to-distribute-hiv-test-kits.html
