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Over 1,000 HIV positives patients in 2008: KIO

Over 1,000 patients have been found to be HIV positive in 2008 in the
biggest hospital in Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) controlled
Laiza, the largest ethnic Kachin ceasefire group in Burma's northern
Kachin state, said KIO sources. Both KIO servicemen and the people can
avail medical services at the hospital.

The HIV positive statistics was recorded at the public and military
hospital in Laiza, the headquarters and business centre of the KIO on the
Sino-Burma border following blood examination of every patient who came to
the hospital this year, said Naw Bu, deputy in-charge of the KIO central
Health Department.

Naw Bu added that only one-third of patients infected with HIV are
residents of Laiza and the rest are from the villages around Laiza and
people from Bhamo and Myitkyina townships, the most populated areas in the
state.

HIV was found mostly among Intravenous Drug Users (IDUs) in the Laiza
hospital where the patients from outside Laiza also come for
hospitalization, according to Naw Bu.

Moreover, every eight out of 10 IDUs in Maijayang also called Mai Ja Yang
in Kachin, another KIO business centre on the border and headquarters of
the 3rd Brigade under the KIO are HIV positive, the results of blood
examination revealed, a NGO worker in the border-based Health Unlimited
(HU) said.

Maijayang is where the KIO's biggest and 24-hour non-stop casino is
located. Here thousands of people, mainly Chinese gamble. On the other
hand there are one or more drug users in every Kachin family in the
village, according to residents of the villages.

The London-based HU has its branch office in Kunming, the capital of
China's southwest Yunnan province and it is implementing harm reduction
project of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) to IDUs and
commercial sex workers in the KIO controlled areas of Laiza and Maijayang,
said HU workers. The HU is also imparting public Malaria education,
prevention and cure projects in the villages along the Sino-Burma border
which are mainly controlled by the KIO.

On December 1, the special public education ceremonies on 'World Aids Day'
were held in Laiza and Maijayang and jointly managed by the HU and the KIO
Health Department, said sources.

According to the international medical group Doctors Without Borders,
AIDS-related illnesses killed 25,000 people in 2007 in Burma. The group
said that some 240,000 people are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, but
only a few thousand are receiving life-saving treatment.

Kachin News Group
3 December 2008