Posts tagged Myanmar

The Need For Urgent HIV and TB Treatment in Myanmar. Tens of thousands of people living with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in Myanmar are unable to access lifesaving antiretroviral 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. “Lives in the Balance,” a new report from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), outlines the situation for people affected by HIV and tuberculosis (TB), with a special focus on multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), in Myanmar today. It calls for urgent funding and assistance to be made available by the international donor community to help Myanmar close the devastating gap between people’s need and people’s access to treatment for HIV and TB. Infographic by Will Owen

The Need For Urgent HIV and TB Treatment in Myanmar.

Tens of thousands of people living with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in Myanmar are unable to access lifesaving antiretroviral 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.

“Lives in the Balance,” a new report from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), outlines the situation for people affected by HIV and tuberculosis (TB), with a special focus on multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), in Myanmar today. It calls for urgent funding and assistance to be made available by the international donor community to help Myanmar close the devastating gap between people’s need and people’s access to treatment for HIV and TB.

Infographic by Will Owen

The math is simple. 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.
Peter Paul de Groote,
MSF head of mission in Myanmar

Speaking on the dire effects of the recent cancellation of a new round of funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
“While international attention focuses on Myanmar, a health crisis in the country looms large. An estimated 85,000 people infected with HIV in Myanmar are not receiving lifesaving treatment. This is an improvement on previous years with new momentum in the country to tackle the crisis. However, the recent retreat of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria threatens to undo improvements, leaving tens of thousands of people living with HIV and TB without treatment and a large scale crisis unchecked.” —Joe Belliveau, MSF operations manager in Myanmar This article originally appeared in Thailand’s The Nation newspaper. Meeting with patients at an MSF clinic in southern Myanmar. Photo: Myanmar 2011 © Veronique Terrasse/MSF

“While international attention focuses on Myanmar, a health crisis in the country looms large. An estimated 85,000 people infected with HIV in Myanmar are not receiving lifesaving treatment.

This is an improvement on previous years with new momentum in the country to tackle the crisis. However, the recent retreat of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria threatens to undo improvements, leaving tens of thousands of people living with HIV and TB without treatment and a large scale crisis unchecked.”

—Joe Belliveau, MSF operations manager in Myanmar

This article originally appeared in Thailand’s The Nation newspaper.

Meeting with patients at an MSF clinic in southern Myanmar.

Photo: Myanmar 2011 © Veronique Terrasse/MSF

Yet again, donors have turned their backs on people living with HIV and TB in Myanmar. Every day we are confronted with the tragic consequences of these decisions: desperately sick people and unnecessary deaths.
Peter Paul de Groote,
MSF head of mission in Myanmar
Speaking on the tens of thousands of people living with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in Myanmar who are unable to access lifesaving treatment, a dire situation exacerbated by the recent cancellation of a new round of funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
Myanmar: Urgent Action Needed Against HIV and TB 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. MSF currently treats more than 23,000 HIV patients in Myanmar. An additional 6,000 people will be enrolled in MSF clinics in 2012. Worlwide, MSF treats more than 170,000 people living with HIV. Photo: Myanmar 2012 © Greg Constantine. A young man co-infected with HIV and TB at MSF’s clinic in Yangon.

Myanmar: Urgent Action Needed Against HIV and TB

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.

MSF currently treats more than 23,000 HIV patients in Myanmar. An additional 6,000 people will be enrolled in MSF clinics in 2012. Worlwide, MSF treats more than 170,000 people living with HIV.

Photo: Myanmar 2012 © Greg Constantine. A young man co-infected with HIV and TB at MSF’s clinic in Yangon.

Dawn is just breaking when Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) counselor Aung Hein Maw begins another day of traveling through the Dawei and Myeik districts in southern Myanmar. In the early morning mist, one can just make out the silhouettes of palm trees and women working in the paddy fields. As the driver steers around the potholes, Maw checks his list of patients to visit. Most of them are “defaulters,” or patients who were diagnosed with HIV or TB-HIV co-infection at the clinic but who either failed to come back for their appointment or who have had problems adhering to the treatment. This is troubling for many reasons. For people living with HIV, TB is the most common opportunistic infection, and the main cause of death. When patients first start on a TB treatment regimen, they should come at least once a month to the clinic so that staff can monitor their progress. However, they don’t always come. Photo: Myanmar 2011 © Veronique Terrasse/MSF

Dawn is just breaking when Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) counselor Aung Hein Maw begins another day of traveling through the Dawei and Myeik districts in southern Myanmar. In the early morning mist, one can just make out the silhouettes of palm trees and women working in the paddy fields. As the driver steers around the potholes, Maw checks his list of patients to visit. Most of them are “defaulters,” or patients who were diagnosed with HIV or TB-HIV co-infection at the clinic but who either failed to come back for their appointment or who have had problems adhering to the treatment.

This is troubling for many reasons. For people living with HIV, TB is the most common opportunistic infection, and the main cause of death. When patients first start on a TB treatment regimen, they should come at least once a month to the clinic so that staff can monitor their progress. However, they don’t always come.

Photo: Myanmar 2011 © Veronique Terrasse/MSF

It’s very gratifying to see how grateful the patients are for the care and attention we give them. Our input isn’t only medical; it also consists of moral support, as many of the patients are having a hard time and have lost their hope in life. Seeing them regain their confidence and strength is really rewarding.
Dr. Calorine Mekiedje on her experience as a medical adviser at the Dawei clinic in the south of Myanmar, where MSF has been treating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) since 2000.
We go and find them in their villages and offer extra support for them to come back for their appointment, then we follow up and ensure they are taking their drugs correctly, but we also visit patients when they are at a critical point of their treatment or are experiencing side effects and need more support.
MSF counselor Aung Hein Maw, who travels through southern Myanmar to visit patients who were diagnosed with HIV or TB-HIV co-infection at the clinic but who either failed to come back for their appointment or who have had problems adhering to the treatment. Learn more.
Meeting with patients at an MSF clinic in southern Myanmar. In this article, Dr. Calorine Mekiedje talks about her experience as a medical adviser at the Dawei clinic in the south of Myanmar, where MSF has been treating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) since 2000. Photo: Myanmar 2011 © Veronique Terrasse/MSF

Meeting with patients at an MSF clinic in southern Myanmar.

In this article, Dr. Calorine Mekiedje talks about her experience as a medical adviser at the Dawei clinic in the south of Myanmar, where MSF has been treating HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) since 2000.

Photo: Myanmar 2011 © Veronique Terrasse/MSF

A mother and child rest inside an MSF clinic in Myanmar (Burma). MSF provides the majority of available HIV/AIDS care in the country, but many more people living with HIV or AIDS need to be put on treatment. Myanmar 2008 © MSF

A mother and child rest inside an MSF clinic in Myanmar (Burma). MSF provides the majority of available HIV/AIDS care in the country, but many more people living with HIV or AIDS need to be put on treatment.
Myanmar 2008 © MSF

2008Cyclone Hits Myanmar MSF staff already working in the country provides assistance to thousands of people displaced by the cyclone while the government stalls on allowing additional staff to enter the country. Learn more about MSF’s history at our website. Photo: Myanmar 2008 © Eyal Warshawski

2008
Cyclone Hits Myanmar

MSF staff already working in the country provides assistance to thousands of people displaced by the cyclone while the government stalls on allowing additional staff to enter the country.

Learn more about MSF’s history at our website.

Photo: Myanmar 2008 © Eyal Warshawski

A Rohingya mother in a makeshift camp in Kutupalong, where MSF has been providing medical care. Bangladesh 2010 © Javier Arcenillas The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority who have fled Myanmar. In Bangladesh, the vast majority are not recognized as refugees.

A Rohingya mother in a makeshift camp in Kutupalong, where MSF has been providing medical care.

Bangladesh 2010 © Javier Arcenillas

The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority who have fled Myanmar. In Bangladesh, the vast majority are not recognized as refugees.

Bangladesh 2009 © Cristina De Middel MSF runs a basic health program in Kutupalong, providing much needed medical care to stateless Rohingya there. Read our full report.

Bangladesh 2009 © Cristina De Middel

MSF runs a basic health program in Kutupalong, providing much needed medical care to stateless Rohingya there.

Read our full report.

Bangladesh 2010 © Javier Arcenillas About 6,000 people have arrived at the Kutupalong makeshift camp in southern Bangladesh since a violent crackdown on stateless Rohingya people began in October 2009. Many were victims of beatings and harassment. Read the press release: “Bangladesh: Ethnic Rohingya People Victims of a Violent Crackdown”

Bangladesh 2010 © Javier Arcenillas

About 6,000 people have arrived at the Kutupalong makeshift camp in southern Bangladesh since a violent crackdown on stateless Rohingya people began in October 2009. Many were victims of beatings and harassment.

Read the press release: “Bangladesh: Ethnic Rohingya People Victims of a Violent Crackdown”

Outside Kutupalong makeshift camp in southern Bangladesh. Bangladesh 2010 © Javier Arcenillas Since a violent crackdown on stateless Rohingya people began in October 2009, about 6,000 people have arrived. They’ve joined tens of thousands of Rohingya already living here on a crowded, unsanitary piece of land next to an official UN refugee camp to which they have no access.

Outside Kutupalong makeshift camp in southern Bangladesh.

Bangladesh 2010 © Javier Arcenillas

Since a violent crackdown on stateless Rohingya people began in October 2009, about 6,000 people have arrived. They’ve joined tens of thousands of Rohingya already living here on a crowded, unsanitary piece of land next to an official UN refugee camp to which they have no access.