Donors to reevaluate support for Myanmar's fight against HIV/AIDS

Jul 28 2009

The AP/KTVZ.com examines how after years of strained relationships between the "military-run nation" of Myanmar and international donors that led to a large reduction in HIV/AIDS funding, donors are considering reinvesting in the country's HIV/AIDS programs.

According to AP/KTVZ.com, "Myanmar receives only about $3 per capita in aid, compared with $23 for Vietnam and $50 for Laos."

An estimated 240,000 people in Myanmar are living with HIV. Of those, "about 76,000 are in need of the life-saving antiretroviral treatment, but less than a quarter of them - about 18,000 - are getting it … Donors have long feared that aid would only bolster the iron-hand rule of the military government," the news service writes. While aid groups say that the Myanmar government is fully away of the HIV/AIDS problem, "the regime's priorities lie elsewhere," according to the AP/KTVZ.com.

The article examines how the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which began closing its grants in Myanmar in 2005, "is now considering an application by Myanmar for $320 million in funding, with the goal of treating 42,000 new AIDS cases within five years." The AP also addresses how the U.S. and E.U. are reevaluating their assistance policies toward Myanmar and features several clinics who care for HIV/AIDS patients (7/26).