HIV prevalence figures are often released to the mass media and presented without the information that allow HIV professionals to make programmatic decisions based on them. In the past only sex workers in Mandalay and Yangon were tested and the sampling was biased. This (sentinel?) survey data may be better. Can any readers help?
But any way the data is collected it is important to feel compassion for the infected women and to redouble efforts to provide them with care and their coworkers with effective prevention methods.
[him] moderator
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Burmese Sex Workers Tested for HIV
By MIN LWIN Wednesday, March 18, 2009
A recent survey of female sex workers in Burma confirms a high incidence of HIV, threatening a dangerous and potentially devastating epidemic.
The survey was undertaken in six locations in 2007 to examine and test female sex workers, according to the Rangoon-based weekly journal The Weekly Eleven News, which quoted statistics from the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
The journal reported that 147 of 945 sex workers tested positive for HIV in six townships: Lashio, Mandalay, Myintkyinar, Taunggy, Rangoon and Kaungtaung.
The percentages were Lashio, 22.7 percent; Mandalay, 22.6 percent; Myintkyinar, 17.9 percent; Taunggyi, 14.4 percent; Rangoon, 9.6 percent; and Kaungtaung. 1.2 percent.
According to an HIV/AIDS Projection and Demographic Impact Analysis Workshop in September 2007, Burma had 240,000 people, including children, living with HIV/AIDS.
An estimated 339,000 people were infected with HIV at the end of 2004, according to statistics from the military government’s National AIDS Program.
The recent economic crisis and increasing economic woes has led more Burmese women to turn to the sex industry, say observers.
A volunteer who counsels people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) and educates volunteers in Rangoon said that the majority of female sex workers have never been tested for HIV, and they have little information about HIV and sexually transmitted infections.
“Even sex workers who knew about HIV said they can’t use condoms because their partners don’t like it,” she said.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15323
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Report: 2 Myanmar cities found with most HIV-carrying sex workers
www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-18 11:34:18
YANGON, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Two Myanmar cities in the northern part -- Lashio and Mandalay were found with most HIV-carrying sex workers, the local Weekly Eleven News quoted the figures of the Ministry of Health as reporting Wednesday.
Of the 945 sex workers examined during a census conducted for six areas in the country in 2007, 147 were found infected with HIV with those from Lashio accounting for 22.7 percent, Mandalay 22.6 percent, Myitgyina 17.9 percent, Taunggyi 14.4 percent, Yangon 9.6percent and Kengtung 1.2 percent.
The HIV victims, aged from 30 to 34, took 22.8 percent, while those from 25 to 29 represented 18 percent, 20 to 24 17.3 percent, the figures showed.
Myanmar has been stepping up prevention against HIV infection occurring among groups who move about for their living.
The authorities stressed the urgent need for HIV prevention work through education on such groups whose undertakings are posing a high level of danger to the society, citing those earning their living through sex trade and their partners as well as those working with the career, drug users and their close associates, hotels and inns, and Karaoke entertainment centers.
HIV prevalence rate has reportedly attained the most critical point especially in the border areas where socio-economic status is complicated.
The border town of Tachilek stands a main channel for trafficking women and children to Thailand and its nearby areas.
The authorities has launched education campaign in eastern Shanstate in 2008, saying that the campaign will be extended to Muse in northern Shan state.
As disclosed by the authorities, a total of 2,190 people, engaged in the sector, were exposed as carrying HIV in 2008.
According to a latest report of the UNAIDS, the number of people infected with HIV in Myanmar went to 240,000 in 2007, a drop from 300,000 in 2001.
HIV/AIDS is among the three major communicable diseases of national concern designated by Myanmar. The other two diseases are tuberculosis and malaria.
Myanmar treats the three diseases as priority with the main objectives of reducing the morbidity and mortality in a bid to become no longer a public problem and meet the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/18/content_11030819.htm
