Run by The Union Office in Myanmar, the programme is based in NAP clinics, providing testing, counselling, ART and additional treatment for opportunistic infections. Care and treatment includes co-infection management, particularly for tuberculosis.
When a monitored person on ART is stable, their case is referred to the newly established decentralised sites. The sites have been established and supported to provide ongoing monitoring and ART closer to people’s homes, to avoid extra travel and cost.
Established in 2005, the programme is funded through a grant from the Global Fund to Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
32,764
people living with HIV are receiving ART treatment (as of June 2024)
97%
of people with HIV are screened for TB (as of June 2024)
104%
of other vulnerable population (OVPs) have received HIV test (as of June 2024)
98%
of people with TB are tested for HIV (as of Aug 2024)
IHC works with active supporters of over 200 people living with HIV, who work in IHC centres, registering and supporting patients. They provide peer counselling, visit patients for home-based care, and vital community follow up to trace patients who miss appointments and lapse with their treatment. These peer client supporters play an essential role in engaging the community in outreach programmes, conduct information sessions and encourage testing and treatment.
The peer client supporters also receive their treatment through the IHC, and they have been able to contribute to improving and developing services specifically to support individual patients with their additional concerns and needs.
Htun Htun tested positive for HIV in 2004. At the time, there was no treatment available to him in Myanmar. Prior to his diagnosis he was planning to get married, but when he learned of his status, he called off the wedding. His fiancée, however, refused to leave him, wanting to care for him no matter what happened. In 2005, The Union’s IHC Programme opened and treated Htun Htun, who at that point had contracted TB and malaria. Htun Htun remains an active peer client supporter specifically for people living with HIV.
The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) initiative is part of the IHC. The service identifies HIV positive mothers during their pregnancy, by testing all women who come for antenatal care. The PMTCT programme then provides HIV positive mothers with comprehensive care and ART throughout their pregnancy, during delivery and then provides continuing care for mother and child up to 18 months. The service includes early infant diagnosis if a mother has not been able to access PMTCT services before birth. The aim of this programme is to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child.
The comprehensive PMTCT programme is currently implemented at the Central Women’s Hospital in Mandalay. It is enrolling all pregnant women at all IHC sites and refers them to other IHC clinics for continuum of care. Since its inception in 2011 PMTCT has initiated ART for 900 pregnant women and initiated ARV prophylaxis to over 1,300 HIV exposed babies.