Between 2011 and 2014, Myanmar more than doubled the number of people living with HIV who are on long-term antiretroviral-therapy (ART), the gold standard for HIV treatment. This is fantastic news. Furthermore, while Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to be one of the biggest providers of HIV care in Myanmar, currently treating 35,000 patients across the country, by the end of 2014, almost half of all ART drugs in Myanmar were being provided in the public sector.
But despite these achievements, the harsh reality remains that today only half the estimated 210,000 people living with HIV in Myanmar receive ART. So as we mark Word AIDS day this year, and acknowledge the huge progress that has been made in Myanmar, we need to ask ourselves: why is this? And, even more importantly, what needs to happen next?
We have entered a new phase in the HIV epidemic in Myanmar. Success in starting more people on proper treatment has also brought a new challenge: how do we maintain the long term support of those already on treatment, while simultaneously ensuring that the remaining people living with HIV know their status and have access to services? Part of the answer lies in simplifying the way we support those already on lifelong treatment.
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