The Union’s Integrated HIV Care (IHC) Programme provides ART to more than 29,000 people living with HIV across five regions of the country, as of the end of 2017. The programme, which began in 2005 from small beginnings (treating 190 in one year), has become a key component of Myanmar’s national HIV strategy.
The programme increased access to care for over one-third of its patients by establishing 17 decentralised treatment centres and tested 99 percent of all TB patients in townships with established IHC clinics for HIV. Nine percent of those tested were HIV positive.
IHC patients receive ART and medicines to treat opportunistic infection free of charge at clinics that screen for TB, monitor CD4 count and HIV viral load and provide expert counselling.
The IHC Programme is supported by grants from Total E&P Myanmar and the Global Fund.
Membership news
HIV SCIENTIFIC SECTION
Organised a meet-the-expert session in Guadalajara on the utility of GeneXpert MTB/RIF for diagnosing TB and increasing case detection, and facilitated the TB-HIV late-breaker session which featured six presentations from diverse geographical backgrounds and clinical and programmatic perspectives of TB-HIV and TB-diabetes.