The MSF story two weeks ago hit all the major press agencies and went viral. Now is a good time to look at some of the original text. Dr. Khin Nyein Chan is quoted below as saying “The time to treat is now. There is a real opportunity here; HIV prevalence rates in Myanmar are relatively low. It is lack of access to treatment that makes it one of the most serious epidemics in Asia.”
Is it the lack of access to treatment that makes it one of the most serious epidemics in Asia? Did she mean 'severe'? Or is it the disease burden in a poor country with dismal governance that makes it one of the most 'serious' or 'severe' epidemics in Asia?
We need to think clearly about the epidemic in order to continue effective action. We cannot treat our way of the Myanmar epidemic. No matter what the mathematical models 'tell' us.
The subheadline is misleading. No Global Fund grants have been cancelled in seven years. The Round 11 call for proposals was cancelled.
[him] moderator
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Press Release
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
MYANMAR: URGENT ACTION NEEDED AGAINST HIV AND TB
New MSF Report Warns That Cancellation of Global Fund Grants Will Have
Devastating Effect in Country With Almost no Access to Lifesaving Treatment
BANGKOK/NEW YORK, February 22, 2012 – Tens of thousands of people living
with HIV and tuberculosis in Myanmar are unable to access lifesaving
anti-retroviral therapy (ART), a dire situation exacerbated by the recent
cancellation of a new round of funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
TB and Malaria, said the international medical humanitarian organization
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in a report released
Wednesday.
In its report, Lives in the Balance, MSF, the largest provider of HIV
treatment in Myanmar, said that there are now 85,000 people in need of ART.
In 2010, fewer than 30,000 people received treatment. MSF is currently
treating more than 23,000 people living with HIV in Myanmar.
Of an estimated 9,300 people newly infected with multi-drug resistant
tuberculosis (MDR-TB), only about 300 are receiving treatment. The MSF
report details the devastating effect the cancellation of an entire round
of funding from the Global Fund will have on the struggle to provide HIV
and TB treatment in Myanmar. There will be no new funding to expand
treatment for HIV or TB and its drug-resistant forms in Myanmar until 2014.
“Yet again, donors have turned their backs on people living with HIV and
TB in Myanmar,” said Peter Paul de Groote, MSF head of mission in Myanmar.
“Every day we are confronted with the tragic consequences of these
decisions: desperately sick people and unnecessary deaths.”
Between 15,000 and 20,000 people living with HIV die every year in Myanmar
because of lack of access to lifesaving ART. TB prevalence in Myanmar is
more than three times the global average and Myanmar is among the 27
countries with the highest MDR-TB rates in the world. Like non-resistant
TB, MDR-TB is easily transmitted through the air and can infect perfectly
healthy people, but requires far more complex and lengthy treatment.
"Without increased availability of treatment, HIV and TB will continue to
spread unchecked in many areas,” said MSF’s Dr. Khin Nyein Chan. “The time
to treat is now. There is a real opportunity here; HIV prevalence rates in
Myanmar are relatively low. It is lack of access to treatment that makes it
one of the most serious epidemics in Asia.”
Myanmar, the least developed country in Southeast Asia, receives some of
the least official development assistance in the world. With political
reform in Myanmar resulting in greater international engagement with the
country, an opportunity now exists to put access to treatment for people
living with HIV and TB at the top of donor priorities, said MSF.
“I want to see treatment be accessible for every patient in Myanmar,” said
Zaw Zaw a female 30-year-old MSF patient, whose husband and youngest child
are also HIV positive and receive ART from MSF. “I want people to stay
alive by taking treatment, like us.”
Myanmar suffers from an underfunded state healthcare system. While there
are promising efforts to increase the health budget, it will be years
before the country has a fully comprehensive healthcare system.
“The math is simple,” said de Groote. “Rapidly scaling up HIV and TB
treatment now will prevent further transmission and save both lives and
money. Fewer people infected means fewer lives lost, and fewer people in
need of treatment. It is critical that donors help Myanmar ensure that more
patients across the country receive treatment for HIV and MDR-TB.”
###
MSF currently treats more than 23,000 HIV patients in Myanmar. An
additional 6,000 people will be enrolled in MSF clinics in 2012. Worldwide,
MSF treats more than 170,000 people living with HIV.
Contact: Sandra Murillo: +1-212-763-5765/+1-646-207-0405
To download the report, go to:
http://www.msf.org/msf/articles/2012/02/lives-in-the-balance-the-urgent-need-for-hiv-and-tb-treatment-in-myanmar.cfm
--
Sharonann Lynch
HIV/AIDS Policy Advisor
Access to Essential Medicines Campaign
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Tel: +1.646.824.3066
Email: sharonann.lynch@msf.org
