Myanmese Aids victims find hope in India
December 6, South China Morning Post

Woman's remarkable survival inspires fellow sufferers to sneak into
India for treatment, writes Shaikh Azizur Rahman

When 24-year-old Myanmese Mary Lun was carried across the border and
into the Aids hospice of Churachandpur in northeast India in March,
she weighed a mere 24kg and was all but dead.

Infected with HIV by one of her two former husbands or a boyfriend,
Ms Lun was also wracked with tuberculosis and too weak to even cough.
Few who saw her thought she would come out of the hospice alive.
Yet, less than five months later, she astonished her friends by
walking out with a smile, her weight a healthy 60kg.

Her amazing recovery has highlighted the situation of Myanmar's HIV
patients, who are either sneaking across the border into India's
Manipur state to receive the life-saving treatments that are either
inaccessible or unaffordable in Myanmar. India-based NGOs are helping
provide their illicit treatment by supplying them with fake
addresses - and even helping some resettle in India permanently.

"She was nothing but a bundle of bones and skin when I saw her first
in our hospice bed," said Biakdiki Chhakchhuak, a doctor in charge of
the hospice run by the NGO Shalom.

Shalom director P. Vanlalmuana said Ms Lun's recovery was nothing
short of spectacular. "Now she weighs 60kg and her CD4 [blood cell]
count has gone up to 240 [from just 20]. She is quite healthy now.
Her recovery is a classic example of how antiretroviral therapy and
other drugs can help a dying Aids victim regain health and save one
from the brink of an immediate death," said Dr Vanlalmuana,
describing her case at a seminar in August.

Manipur-based Myanmese doctor and activist Aung Kyaw Oo believes
there are thousands of HIV/Aids pa-tients in Myanmar's Kachin and
Chin states whose only hope of receiving modern antiretroviral drugs
lies in sneaking over the border to India, where charities provide
free treatment.

"Because of ever-increasing restrictions by the military junta [in
Myanmar], the chances of international medical aid agencies reaching
those infected people in frontier areas are getting dimmer," said
Aung Kyaw Oo. "But agencies from India can provide the key medical
aid, including antiretrovirals.

"With at least 7 per cent of the region's population being infected
with HIV and less than 0.5 per cent of the Aids victims having access
to antiretrovirals, the care and treatment situation is in fact
grimmer than in many African countries."

When news of Ms Lun's recovery reached friends also infected with HIV
in her home town of Khampat, some travelled across the border to see
her in the flesh and confirm her condition with their own eyes.

"Earlier this year she was so sick and bed-ridden that we thought she
would die within a few weeks. We have seen many young people dying in
the same situation in our area. It is a miracle to find her so
healthy and young today," said Lalramshami Ngente, 27.

"If the [health] activists did not bring her down to Manipur she would
have been inside a grave in Burma now. She is really lucky."

Sangpuii Ralte, a 29-year-old friend, said "99 per cent" of those
infected with HIV in her home district of Tamu were unable to
afford "long life" antiretroviral drugs in Myanmar, and neither the
government nor NGOs there could provide them free.

"Recently I fell sick with diarrhoea and I had to spend my life's
savings of 10 million kyat [HK$12,600] for my treatment at a private
hospital in Khampat. Since I was HIV-positive, government doctors in
Khampat said they had no infrastructure to treat me," said Ms
Sangpuii.

Her 32-year-old husband Mawia, who is also HIV-positive, said: "If
you are not among that 5 per cent of the rich and if you get HIV, you
will have to die."

With Mawia losing weight fast, the couple decided after seeing Ms Lun
that they could not afford to delay joining her in India for illicit
treatment.

They got in touch with a group of health workers, who agreed to help
them get the treatment they so desperately sought, even though they
are Myanmese.

"We sold our house in Burma and settled in India [in Churachandpur]
two months ago," said Ms Sangpuii. "The NGO helped us get a house to
rent.

It even helped my husband open a small fish shop which he can manage
without much physical strain," said Ms Sangpuii who now weaves shawls
to supplement the family's income.

"Mawia had been getting weaker, and sometimes fell sick. He could not
work hard in the fields in Myanmar and our family income was
declining. We had no money for his medical treatment there. When we
found that no money would be needed for our treatment in India, we
emigrated."

The high incidence of HIV among Manipur drug users means that the aid
agency Medecins Sans Frontieres and the government provide free
antiretroviral drug treatment for about 400 patients. Since October,
Mawia and Sangpuii Ralte have been among them.

A counsellor for the NGO which helped Mawia and Sangpuii said she and
her colleagues had helped 40 HIV-infected Myanmese enrol for free
treatment in India since May.

"Only about five HIV/Aids victims have settled here. Since we have not
been able to bring the remaining people here [permanently] they are
now shuttling between Sagaing and Manipur to collect their medicine
every month. Within a few months we hope to succeed to bring all of
them here," said the counsellor, who did not want to identify the
charity. "For obvious reasons all of those individuals have been
registered using fake Indian addresses."

The deception is helping save lives, including Ms Lun's. "I have been
blessed with a second life. I never knew that medicine could be so
powerful - or that it came free of charge."

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