A Preventable Fate: HIV in Burma

by Greg Constantine

An estimated 240,000 people have HIV/AIDS in Myanmar, making it one of Asia’s most serious HIV/AIDS epidemics. 76,000 are in urgent need of antiretroviral treatment (ART). Unfortunately, only 15% of these people can access it.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) provides 75% of the available ART treatment in Myanmar, treating more than 11,000, with thousands more registered to start ART when necessary. The Government of Myanmar and other non-governmental organizations provide only a small amount of ART.

The challenge of HIV/AIDS in Burma is one that has received very little attention internationally. People inside Burma know very little about the disease. As a result, the social stigma attached to the disease, forces many people to live and then die with the disease, without receiving the care and attention they need from family, friends and society in general.

I began this project in mid-2008. It would develop into a much more personal journey about the lives of human beings in Burma who are struggling with an illness that can be prevented, can be treated and can be controlled…..but for any number of reasons isn’t. MSF doctors, nurses and counselors unselfishly play the most vital role to people suffering from HIV in Burma. They absorb the sadness, stress and desperation of every person visiting their clinics; people who have no one else to talk to; people who don’t understand the fate they have been given; people who want to live but in many cases won’t. This story is not only about individuals living and suffering with HIV in one of the most challenging and controversial countries in the world, it is also about the work of an organization that will take almost every measure necessary in their pursuit to help them.

Greg Constantine On behalf of Medicines Sans Frontiers