Myanmar to get int'l funding for fighting infectious diseases

YANGON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and Save the Children have reached a memorandum of understanding to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, Myanmar News Agency reported Thursday.

Under the MoU signed with the Ministry of Health and Sports in Nay Pyi Taw Wednesday, the Global Fund will fund Myanmar through UNOPS with 247.89 million U.S. dollars to combat the diseases in the 2018-2020 period as well as with 90.85 million U.S. dollars through Save the Children.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has launched an HIV/AIDS Flagship (UHF) project in February to be implemented in five regions and states with the highest rate of HIV infection.

With a fund of 10 million U.S. dollars and backed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the two-year project covers Kachin and Shan states and Sagaing, Yangon and Mandalay regions.

The project aims to scale up HIV prevention, testing and treatment services by utilizing non-governmental organizations and private health providers for people living with HIV and drug addicts, sex workers and transgender people.

According to statistics, 224,794 people are living with HIV in Myanmar which ranked 25th on the list of countries with a high rate of HIV prevalence.

The rate of new patients with HIV infection dropped 26 percent in 2016 from 2010, while the death toll due to AIDS-related disease plunged 52 percent. Enditem