''The genetic HIV evidence is a smoking gun, fingering Burma,'' added the
67-page report, referring to use of new technology by scientists to identify
the progress and spread of a virus far more accurately than before. ''The
Burmese HIV contribution to much of Asia poses a clear security threat to the
region.''
While sex workers and heroin users in that country had the highest infection
rates - ''with infection as high as 77 percent in northern Burma'' - the routes
by which HIV has spread to neighbouring countries and beyond were those along
which heroin was trafficked, the report revealed.
''The heroin routes'', says the report, may be the ''greatest contributor of
new types of HIV in the world.''
This week's report lends weight to similar concerns expressed this month in the
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). While the average
prevalence rate of HIV in Burma was 1.3 percent, there were pockets where the
deadly virus had reached alarming levels, the UN agency stated.
Among the areas singled out by UNAIDS was Hpa-an, a province in the Karen state
through which tens of thousands of migrant workers pass in search of employment
in neighbouring Thailand.
There was a 7.5 percent HIV prevalence rate among people in Hpa-an who had been
tested, among them included pregnant women and people with sexually transmitted
diseases.
By contrast, the country with the highest HIV prevalence rate in South-east
Asia is Cambodia, above two percent, followed by Thailand, at 1.5 percent.
Dr. Chris Beyrer, an HIV/AIDS expert at John Hopkins University in the United
States, said during an interview this month that, if not dealt with, the spread
of HIV in Burma could escalate to the staggering numbers witnessed in the worst
hit parts of Africa.
''Cambodia and Burma are the only two countries (in Asia) where the population
prevalence is approaching African levels where you would have as many as one in
25 or even one in 20 adults with HIV infection,'' Bayrer was quoted as having
said in an interview appearing on a web portal on HIV/AIDS by the United
Nations Development Programme.
Currently there are up to 40 million people with HIV across the world, with the
worst affected being in sub-Saharan Africa, 25.4 million people, according to
UNAIDS. In South and East Asia, the combined number of HIV patients is 8.2
million people.
Burma watchers are hardly surprised by these disturbing realities as, until
very recently, Rangoon's military regime refused to acknowledge that the
country had an emerging HIV/AIDS crisis.
''Khin Nyunt was the first Burmese prime minister who spoke out publicly that
HIV had to be addressed in the country,'' said Soe Aung, spokesman for the
National Council for the Union of Burma, an alliance of Burmese exiles.
But Khin Nyunt, a high ranking general who was appointed prime minister in the
second half of 2003 was arrested in October the the following year and is
currently standing trial on various charges, including corruption.
''The military regime's commitment to HIV is very limited,'' Soe Aung said in
an interview. ''They don't reveal how many soldiers and military officers are
infected, and if a soldier or officer is found HIV positive, he is discharged
from the army.''
The harsh laws that people live under have also been blamed for the spread of
HIV. Most glaring is the legal clause that states a woman in Burma can be
arrested and face charges if she is found carrying a condom.
As bad is the country's crumbling public health system, resulting in limited
availability of testing centres and hospitals to care for people with HIV.
''Burma devotes only 0.19 percent of its GDP (gross domestic product), or 2.7
percent of its state budget for public health,'' writes Dr. Withaya Huanok in
the recent issue of 'The Irrawaddy,' a news magazine on Burmese and regional
affairs published in Thailand by Burmese journalists in exile.
''In sharp contrast, 40 percent of the national budget is spent on defence,''
he adds. ''WHO (World Health Organisation) ranks Burma second from the bottom
of its public health care listings, after Sierra Leone.''
In 1999, the amount Rangoon set aside for public health was even lower - 0.17
percent of its GDP, according to available reports. It was the same year, in
fact, that the Burmese generals admitted for the first time that the country
was faced with the spreading killer disease, consequently enabling humanitarian
agencies to step in.
Little of this escalating public health crisis has been addressed during either
the summit meetings or foreign ministers gatherings of the Association of
South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The 10-member regional grouping, which includes Burma, Brunei, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, is
facing a mounting political crisis over Burma heading ASEAN in 2006.
''They will be discussing the Burma issue in Laos, especially because Rangoon
has displayed no commitment towards political reform,'' says a Thai regional
analyst. ''They have also shown little interest in HIV, even though it is
becoming such a threat to regional stability.''
Inter Press Service
