Sex workers in Myanmar and HIV/AIDS in Manipur

The news that HIV/AIDS infection in the three hill districts of Manipur bordering Myanmar -- Churachandpur, Chandel and Ukhrul -- is on the increase mainly due to commercial sex workers from that country spreading the dreaded disease should be taken note seriously by the authorities.

Myanmar is a country where the incidence of HIV/AIDS is 1.3 per cent of the total population (240,000 out of 47,373,958) while it is 0.3 percent is case of India.

Myanmar ranks lowest among countries worldwide in international assistance per capita and among lowest in the world to get antiretroviral treatment access by the patients.

Currently, fewer than 20% of HIV-positive people in need of drugs receive them -- either from international groups or in small amounts from the government -- according to a report of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) released in November 2008.

More alarming is the fact that an estimated 42 per cent of Myanmarese women in the age group pf 15-49 carry HIV by the end of 2007. So, nearly one in every two women of Myanmar carry HIV and this should be higher in the case of commercial sex workers. This should be scary enough for the authorities in Manipur.

Myanmar is also one of the 22 countries with the highest TB burdens worldwide with about 1.5 per cent of their population contracting the disease annually. This will only add to Manipur’s health problem since TB associated AIDS is fast becoming a public health emergency in the state.

It will be a difficult job to restrict movement of people from the Myanmar side along the 358 km long porous international border. Measures like making easy availability of condom to the people, particularly to those prone to make contact with the women from the other side of the border, and making them aware about the use of condom are important.

Myanmar, as we know is an impoverished nation and their women would be lured for flesh trade on account of difference in foreign exchange of their money (Kyat) with the Indian rupee.

So, it is time now to give more focus on the hill districts.

HIV/AIDS facts of Myanmar:
47,373,958: population of Myanmar (2007)
240,000: Estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007.
0.7%: Estimated percentage of adults (ages 15-49) living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2007.
42%: Estimated percentage of HIV cases that occurred among women (ages 15-49) by the end of 2007.
24,000: Estimated number of deaths due to AIDS during 2007.
Source: UNAIDS 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic (July 2008).

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