IRIN's PlusNews has published their top ten HIV stories for 2010. The [him] moderator finds that few of them have any relevance in Myanmar.

1) Microbicide breakthrough and antiretrovirals for prevention: just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should.
2) The two hour TB test will slowly be rolled out but it won't get farther than a few cities.
3) Treatment 2.0, patent pool, and UNITAID, funding crisis, and Indian generics. Yawn.  Scaling up ART in Myanmar won't be much affected.
4) Easier travel is for fine if you go to South Korea and China. Do you know any Burmese who have not been able to travel to China?
5) Universal access has been replaced by the Three Zeros. Unwieldy Maolike slogans.
5) Anti MSM sentiment in Africa is now more visible. Myanmar has its own.

Happy New Year.

[him] moderator

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HIV / AIDS Top Ten for 2010
                                                                                                                                          
NAIROBI,  29 December 2010 (PlusNews) - This has been an exciting year for the  fight against HIV, with dramatic developments in biomedical HIV  prevention and a record five million people receiving life-prolonging  treatment. It has also been a year fraught with funding difficulties and  the continued discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and  other marginalized groups. Here are the picks from PlusNews coverage:
    
    Microbicide breakthrough - After years of disappointing results, this year saw the first clinical evidence that a vaginal gel - known as a microbicide  - could help to prevent sexual transmission of HIV. Such a preventative  tool in the hands of women would radically reduce the level of new  infections, analysts say.
    
    ARVs for prevention - A new study  found that daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) - the use of ARVs  to prevent HIV in high-risk groups - reduced HIV infection risk among  participants who took the ARV Truvada by an average 43.8 percent.
    
    Two-hour TB test - In December, the UN World Health Organization endorsed a new rapid test for TB that could potentially save millions of lives through earlier diagnosis.
    
    Treatment 2.0 - In July, UNAIDS launched a new  approach to HIV treatment aimed at simultaneously achieving two holy  grails of the AIDS response: drastic reductions in AIDS-related deaths  and new HIV infections. "Treatment 2.0"  aims to drastically scale up testing and treatment using current best  practices and future innovations in antiretroviral (ARV) drugs and  diagnostics, with the aim of averting 10 million deaths by 2025, and  reducing new infections by one-third.
    
    Patent pool's first licence - In October, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) became the first patent holder to join the recently created Medicines Patent Pool.  By licensing the ARV Darunavir to the patent pool, it made the  technology to produce it available for the benefit of low- and  middle-income countries.
    
    UNITAID, the international health financing agency that established  the pool, is optimistic many of the large pharmaceutical companies will  soon follow the NIH by licensing their own patented ARVs.
    
    Easier travel - New rules allowing HIV-positive people to travel freely to the US  came into effect early in 2010, ending a 22-year-old ban that had been  widely criticized by AIDS activists as discriminatory and stigmatizing.  China and Namibia also lifted HIV-related travel restrictions in 2010,  but another 51 countries still have restrictions in place.
    
    Universal Access - At the 2006 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS, world leaders expanded their commitment to include universal access  to prevention, care and support and agreed to set national targets by  the end of 2010. While a few African countries achieved universal access  to treatment - Swaziland, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and Rwanda - most  did not. UNAIDS’s new vision is: "Zero new infections. Zero  discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths."
    
    Funding crisis - The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported a US$1 billion funding shortfall  over the next three years. This upsets plans to dramatically increase  HIV treatment numbers and puts people already on treatment at risk of  drug resistance should funding affect the supply of their medicines.
    
    Anti-MSM sentiment - Crackdowns on African MSM increased in 2010, leading AIDS activists to urge tolerance. Uganda continued to pursue its anti-gay bill, while Malawi arrested a gay couple who got engaged and Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga  called for the arrest of gays. Fears of legal action or public outing  often lead MSM to avoid health facilities where they could receive  treatment and care and prevent governments from including MSM  programming in their national strategies.
    
    Threats to India's generics industry - India, widely thought of as the pharmacy of the developing world, has stood firm  against attempts by large pharmaceutical firms to insist on patents on  ARVs, allowing the country to continue manufacturing cheap generics. In  2010, however, activists warned of multiple threats to the nation's  generics industry, including "Special 301",  an annual review process led by the Office of the US Trade  Representative, which has placed India on a "priority watch list" for  failure to properly enforce intellectual property rights, and a Free Trade Agreement  between India and the European Union. Activists claim the EU is using  it to circumvent India's public health protections and boost its own  pharmaceutical industry, putting millions of HIV-positive people's lives  at risk.
    
    kr/mw
    
    http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=91479