Myanmar junta says fighting spread of AIDS
Posted: 01 December 2009 1650 hrs

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YANGON: Myanmar's military junta said on Tuesday that it was doing its best to fight the spread of the disease, as sufferers gathered at the country's opposition headquarters to mark World AIDS Day.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper gave details of government spending on combating HIV and said that cases in the Southeast Asian nation had dropped in recent years.

"The government is fighting AIDS with the use of manpower and financial power," the English-language daily said.

The newspaper said Myanmar spent 191.4 million Kyats (US$190,000) in 2007 in fighting AIDS. It added that UNAIDS figures showed that cases fell from 0.94 per cent of the population in 2004 to 0.67 per cent in 2007.

But it did not give any further information or more recent figures.

In the former capital Yangon, about 150 people living with HIV gathered for World AIDS Day at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters of opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Phyu Phyu Thin, an NLD member who helps to take care of people with HIV and AIDS, said that cases were increasing in Myanmar.

"The virus is spreading. We need antiretroviral medicine urgently. And we have to continue our preventative work, although we have many difficulties," Phyu Phyu Thin said.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and the impoverished nation's healthcare system is in poor condition.

- AFP/sc