Here is a question and answer feature from the Myanmar Times in which the [him] moderator provides responses to questions posed by the newspaper. The Myanmar Times has edited the moderator's responses.
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[him] moderator
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‘There are now funds to adequately respond to the HIV epidemic’
Thomas Kean
June 6 - 12, 2011
We’ve seen many media reports this week on the global fight against HIV and the spiralling costs of treatment and prevention programs. In Myanmar, where are we at now in terms of the fight against new HIV infections?
HIV incidence, or the number of new infections per year, is probably slowly declining but not as quickly as it did in Cambodia and Thailand. Incidence started to decline before the turn of the century, years before effective prevention prog-rams were scaled up. No one knows for sure what factors led to the beginning of this decline but it was definitely not due to governmental fear-based media campaigns.
You have said that the “propaganda machine will be running 24 hours” for the 30th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS on June 5. In Myanmar, can the media play a more significant role in preventing new infections and other HIV-related issues?
The role of the mass media, in Myanmar and other languages used in the country, would make an excellent subject for a social science study. Such a study should be conducted. The print media may be less controlled than the other media and more able to make changes in the way they deal with HIV issues. Television and radio are both controlled and conservative.
How has the response to the HIV epidemic changed here over the past decade?
Perhaps the most significant change in the last 10 years is the consistent access to funds. ... There are now funds to adequately respond to the epidemic.
Another significant change has been the participation of civil society in the response to the disease. Self-help groups of injecting drug users, female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people living with HIV meet in small groups all over the country and are beginning to organise themselves into national networks to press for better prevention and treatment services. Groups of people who come together to respond to HIV are among the best organised of all civil society groups in Myanmar. They are the roots of democracy.
What are the major challenges that still need to be overcome?
Injecting drug users are still not well served with prevention services. There is one effective harm reduction program in Lashio and a few other smaller ones in Shan and Kachin states. Programs in these sites and other places need to be scaled up to reach a majority of drug users at risk. There are said to be currently about 74,000 people in need of HIV treatment and nearly 30,000 on treatment. If the updated WHO treatment guidelines are followed then 110,000 people need treatment. There is still a lot of work to be done to reach this target.
You are quite critical of the National AIDS Program (NAP). If you were the government, how would you make the program more effective?
The NAP has no govern-mental program funding and should not implement any programs. It should ... stand back, create an enabling environment for activities, and not get in the way of whoever is implementing effective programs.
Have you seen any indications that the new government will take a different approach to tackling HIV?
It is too early to say whether the new government will play a more effective role. I have seen little evidence of better governance to date and the national budget for health has not increased. If local authorities allow more HIV prevention and care activities to go ahead in their small geographic spheres of influence then that would be a good thing.
HIV Information for Myanmar can be read at: http://www.hivinfo4mm.org.
http://www.mmtimes.com/2011/news/578/news57812.html
