Aids drugs needed in Burma

A charity which claims to be the only one supplying antiretroviral medication to Aids patients in Burma has been forced to scale down aid efforts.

Medecins Sans Frontieres did not give a reason for the decision to reduce the number of new patients it can name in Burma, which was renamed Myanmar when the military junta seized control of the country.

Instead it called for more help from other aid agencies and other countries.

Burma is struggling to recover from a hurricane which killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed acres of agricultural land in July.

The military junta only spends 70 cents (45p) per person on health care, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

A total of $200,000 was set aside to tackle HIV/Aids by the junta, which affects 240,000 people in the country.

The charity claims world aid organisations and other countries have been reluctant to provide assistance to the area, with humanitarian aid estimated at $3 per head.

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