Anti-AIDS campaign for Myanmarese in Mizoram

Aizawl, Oct 13: The Mizoram government has launched a new AIDS awareness campaign, including free blood tests, for Myanmarese refugees living along the Indo-Myanmar border.

Official sources said here today that an NGO, 'Samaritan', was assigned to carry out the campaign among those afflicted with venereal diseases (VD) and who are more likely to be infected with AIDS.

''The aim of the blood tests is to identify VD infected persons and then we will go in for counselling on prevention and treatment,'' said Dr K Ropari, Project Director of the Mizoram State AIDS Society(MSACS).

According to Ropari, most Myanmarese migrant workers and refugees in India hardly participate in discussions on disease control activities because of lack of awareness on sex education.

The refugees have little knowledge about AIDS, the most harmful virus that spreads widely and they do not seem to know how to prevent the spread of the virus, she stated.

''The NGO is distributing free condoms and demonstrating how to use it systematically besides running a clinic,'' Ropari said.

Most refugees in Mizoram come from several parts of north western Myanmar and have been working as weavers, drivers, gold-smiths, construction workers, sex workers and wood cutters to earn out a living.

Since the treatment for HIV/AIDS virus is hardly available in Myanmar, both treatment and drugs in private clinics and medical centres is out of the reach of poor people. Consequently, some Burmese infected with AIDS virus have died in Mizoram, Dr Ropari added. According to MSACS, blood tests between 1990 and 2006, among 28,608 people out of 4 million in Aizawl, capital of Mizoram, showed that 1,589 persons were HIV positive and 167 infected with AIDS which killed 102.

That apart incidence of Hepatitis B seems to be higher than other diseases among the migrants.

Blood tests conducted between August 2005 to August 2006 by the Samaritan Society among 135 Burmese migrants living in and around Aizawl, shows that prevalence of Hepatitis B is higher than that of other diseases among the Myanmarese migrants.

The statistics show that there were 12.5 per cent Hepatitis B positive cases while there were only 2.22 per cent HIV positive cases from the blood tests conducted. The blood tests, reportedly cover most of the Burmese migrants in Mizoram.

Hepatitis B, C and HIV/AIDS are transmitted through unprotected sex, blood transfusion, needle sharing while using drugs and from infected pregnant mothers to children.

UNI