Sundhedsarbejdere i Burma er mere eller mindre sikre på, at de anstrengelser, der er gjort for at gøre livsvigtig medicin til hiv/aids-patienter mere tilgængeligt, har båret frugt.
ANGON, 12. October, 2012 (IRIN): “I would not have dreamt that this was possible last November,” said Peter Paul de Groote, head of mission for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Burma, referring to the Global Fund’s cancellation of funding that health workers in Burma were relying on to expand access to antiretrovirals (ARVs = livsforlængende medicin).
Instead, MSF has been forced to turn away people in need of ARVs. “It is a trauma for patients sent away and for our staff,” said de Groote.
The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates 18.000 people die of AIDs-related illnesses annually in Burma.
The agency’s coordinator for Burma, Eamonn Murphy, said new funds will allow the country to close a “treatment gap” where only one-third of the 120.000 people nationwide who need ARVs receive them.
Health officials drafted a “concept note” outlining how additional funding might be used, which will be reviewed by the Global Fund’s board, Murphy said.
It offers two scenarios: the first ensures 85 percent of those who need ARVs receive them by 2015; while with the second, 76 percent of people would be covered, he said. Based on feedback from the board, the government will choose a strategy for the proposal to be submitted early next year.
A spokesman for the Global Fund said it “had encouraged an application by the country for more money” following an August visit to Burma by its general director. Additional funding “could make possible an even faster scale-up of HIV treatment.”
Health workers say government healthcare reforms – including a first-time government allocation of 2,4 million US dollar for ARVs this year – as well as a recent managerial shakeup at the Global Fund, have opened the way to boost HIV funding in Burma.
The Global Fund has installed new managers and is developing a different funding model to be piloted next year that will “invest more strategically”, according to the fund.
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http://irinnews.org/Report/96531/MYANMAR-Closing-the-HIV-AIDS-treatment-gap
