Information is necessary but not sufficient to change behaviour.
Jamie
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Kachin youth need more information on HIV, STD transmission: report
Myint Kay Thi
Myanmar Times
Tuesday, 06 December 2016
HIV/AIDS is ravaging rural Kachin State as most residents feel they have little or no access to confidential counselling, condoms, or information about sexually transmitted diseases. Many do not even realise condoms can protect them, say local youth organisations.
Two such groups, Students and Youth Congress for Burma (SYCB) and All Kachin Students and Youth Union (AKYU) released a report on December 3 at Yangon’s Royal Rose restaurant.
“Youth, HIV/AIDS Kachin State” is based on a detailed survey of Kachin State, conducted by local volunteers in 20 village tracts in Myitkyina and Wai Maw townships in 2012, said U Lun Zaung, president of AKYU. There were 991 participants aged between 18 and 35.
Follow-up qualitative research was performed in 2014 through key informant interviews in the same survey area, and also included 12 female informants aged between 22 and 39 in Myawaddy, Kayin State, eight of whom were people living with HIV.
“The participants include those living with HIV and others who are not,” Daw Ah Nang, general secretary of AKYU, told The Myanmar Times.
“Health knowledge is inadequate. Participants told us they were ashamed to be infected with HIV. Some said they accepted treatment only under pressure from their families. Health education is needed in that area, and discrimination still persists,” she said.
According to a separate 2013 study by UNAIDS, Myitkyina has the highest rates of HIV among injecting drug users and female sex workers among areas in Myanmar reporting data, with 29 percent and 12.4pc of those populations affected, respectively.
The Kachin groups’ report says less than 70pc of respondents in their survey were aware that transmission of the HIV virus can be blocked by the use of a condom.
“Most HIV transmission in Kachin is due to unsafe sex and sharing needles,” said Daw Ah Nang.
The report showed that 80pc of respondents understood that AIDS is fatal if not treated, that people can be infected by unsafe sexual intercourse, that HIV can be passed to infants by HIV-positive mothers and that people who seem healthy can have HIV.
Most respondents identified as not living with HIV, either because they had tested negative or because they assumed that they were negative.
The survey said that although 93pc of respondents had heard of HIV/AIDS, fears and misconceptions drove stigma. Nearly half the participants, 44.5pc, said there were still restrictions on condom distribution, and 70.5pc claimed there was little or no access to condoms in their respective regions.
Almost a third believed wrongly that HIV can be transmitted through contact with an infected person’s personal effects, like a toothbrush.
AKYU president U Lun Zaung said the report would be shared with the government, MPs, INGOs, NGOs and CSOs.
“We hope they will consider health activities in remote or ethnic areas, not just focus on big cities,” he said. “More must be done to support health and disseminate knowledge in Kachin State.”
Daw Lin Lin, a member of SYCB, said. “We want to be a part of country’s transition process and we hope that the report will advance HIV-related issues.”
According to the Ministry of Health and Sport, 225,000 people in Myanmar are believed to have HIV. In 2016, 11,149 new cases of HIV were reported. As of October 2016, more than 120,000 people living with HIV/AIDs are receiving ART treatment.
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/yangon/24055-kachin-youth-need-more-information-on-hiv-std-transmission-says-report.html
