From 2016 to 2020, the ministry has received a fund of 466 million US dollars for the AIDS control programs—20 per cent contribution by the government, 50 per cent by Global Fund and the rest by PEPFAR, Access to Health Fund and the ADB, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The ministry is working to provide HIV/AIDS prevention and control services to those in need, in 330 townships nationwide. The resources including the HIV/AIDS funds can be used in other health care services when the transmission of HIV/AIDS has declined. 

Thanks to the ART treatment, patients living with HIV can live longer. The country sees an increasing number of non-communicable diseases (NCD) like hypertension, diabetics and cancer. The NCD becomes a health problem to be taken into consideration in the long-run. The death tolls from the infectious diseases are declining by 14 per cent of the total number of in-patient deaths, according to the ministry’s record in three-year tenure. 

The number of hospitalized patients due to infectious diseases declined from 17.5 per cent in 2012 to 16.3 per cent in 2017. Most of the cases were dihohera. NCD related deaths accounted for 22.5 per cent of the total in-patient numbers in 2012. That number declined to 14 per cent in 2017. This is a positive sign of better health care services, the record says.

An official from the Ministry of Health and Sports said: “In Myanmar, there is a gradual decline in the number of deaths caused by infectious diseases yearly. But the number of cases and deaths caused by non-infectious diseases become higher. The number of NCD deaths increased from 48 per cent in 2014 to 52 per cent in 2017. Arterial diseases tops the list of NCD deaths, followed by cancer, second.”