Two articles have appeared out of the Myanmar Partnership Group meeting. The risk of depending so heavily on the Global Fund is becoming clearer.
The [him] moderator was interested to see that Dr Khin Ohnmar San presented data showing a shortfall of only $10 million for one year. Dropping the PMTCT programme and forgetting about all those sexual partners of the three key affected populations would go a long way in decreasing the shortfall.
Who will step up with the money? Where is the US when you need it?
[him] moderator
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Myanmar risks reversing achievements in HIV prevention and harm reduction if a full implementation of the National Strategic Plan is under-supported
Press Release - Office of the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar
6 December 2011
Yangon, 6 December 2011 – Progressive achievements by the Government of Myanmar and the humanitarian community in Myanmar in the area of HIV prevention and harm reduction could be reversed if the National Strategic Plan cannot be fully implemented, according to participants at today’s Myanmar Partnership Group meeting, a monthly meeting attended by development experts, heads of missions and agencies, diplomats and aid workers.
The Union Government of Myanmar and its partners are committed to implement the National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS 2011-2015. The plan aims to reduce new infections to less than half of the levels of 2010. It also calls for a massive scale up in the provision of treatment for people needing antiretroviral therapy which will reduce the number of people dying from AIDS related causes. A substantial reduction of parent to child transmission during pregnancy and after birth forms an integral part of the plan. The intervention recognizes the need to focus on the prevention of HIV transmission among sex workers and injecting drug users, men who have sex with men and sexual partners of those at immediate risk of HIV infection.
“A full implementation of the plan will have the biggest impact on averting new infections,” noted Dr Saw Lwin, Deputy Director General of Health of the Ministry of Health.
The 5 year plan has an estimated cost of US$340 million. At present, only a fraction of these funds have been secured. The funding situation has worsened by the recent cancellation of the Global Fund Round 11 Grant, for which Myanmar had planned to apply. The present projection of available resources indicated that the scale up of ARV treatment may reach slightly over half the targets by 2015. Programmes for the prevention of HIV are best funded at current levels, participants noted. Harm reduction programmes may even drop from the levels of 2011, if current levels are not sustained. Currently Global Fund Round 9 grant is the sole major funding source for supporting AIDS Response in Myanmar.
“Substantial additional resources need to be made available by all parties, as these will be investment for impact, and it can help to reach national and global targets set in the national strategy plan,” said Dr. Sun Gang, UNAIDS Country Coordinator.
For more information, please contact:
Dr Sun Gang | UNAIDS Country Coordinator
Phone: + 951 252361, 252362, 252498 ( Ext: 3001 )
Fax: +951 252364, sung@unaids.org
Press release from
UNIC Yangon,
6 Natmauk Road, Yangon, Myanmar.
Tel: (95) 1 546 933 -4
Website: http://yangon.unic.org
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Myanmar appeals for more assistance in combating HIV/AIDS
English.news.cn 2011-12-06 20:08:18 FeedbackPrintRSS
YANGON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar appealed on Tuesday to the international community to increase assistance in combating HIV/ AIDS as AIDS response in the country has entered a critical stage.
The appeal was made by participants attending a media round- table discussion here on reaching zero AIDS.
The Round-table Discussion on Reaching Zero AIDS related Stigma and Discrimination in Myanmar, jointly organized by the Ministry of Health and UNAIDS based in Myanmar, was attended by celebrities, officials from the ministry, representatives from local community and Myanmar positive groups, civil society and UN agencies.
"The AIDS response in Myanmar has entered a critical stage. While good achievements on prevention treatment and care has been made so far, Myanmar can achieve universal access if the entire society and all stakeholders are fully mobilized in the years to come or lose the current achievements and see the epidemic grow," the organizer warned.
Dr. Saw Lwin, deputy director general (Disease Control) of the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua that Myanmar is implementing a national strategic plan on HIV/AIDS (2011-2015) which highlights the creative use of diverse types of mass media to reduce stigma and discrimination and to reduce the risk of HIV transmission among key affected population and youth.
Dr. Sun Gang, Country Coordinator of UNAIDS, expressed the belief that with intelligence and innovative approaches, the media will lead the anti-AIDS campaign to meet the best interest of the people, saying that it will contribute to achieving the three zeros in Myanmar -- zero new HIV infection; zero discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths.
He also underlined that Myanmar has made a lot of achievement in terms of HIV and AIDS programs and the media has played an important role.
According to presentation made by Dr. Khin Ohnmar San, National AIDS Program Manager of the Myanmar Ministry of Health, out of a financial need of 49.7 million U.S. dollars for fighting HIV/AIDS, there are only 39 million dollars available.
The manager blamed that there are only 40 percent of HIV patients received treatment with anti-retroviral (ARV) drug, saying that more such drugs are still needed.
A latest statistics show that 240,000 people in Myanmar are living with HIV in 2010, in which there were 9,000 new HIV infections and nearly 20,000 AIDS related deaths.
Under a joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, the UNAIDS is extending supply of ARV drug for Myanmar HIV victims up to 2015.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/health/2011-12/06/c_131291696.htm
