|
"HIV tracked from Myanmar"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(20/07/05)
Study blames heroin users and prostitutes
NEW YORK: Heroin users and prostitutes in Myanmar have spread HIV, the virus
that causes AIDS, through large parts of Asia, according to a Council on
Foreign Relations study released on Monday.
The use of so-called genetic fingerprinting now allows scientists to
identify changes in the evolution of the virus and thereby dispute
accusations, such as the one Libya made against Bulgarian nurses, that one
group or another was spreading the virus.
“With the exception of one serious outbreak in China, virtually all the
strains of HIV now circulating in Asia – from Manipur, India, all the way to
Vietnam, from mid-China all the way down to Indonesia, come from a single
country,” Laurie Garrett, author of the 67-page report, told a news
conference.
“Several research teams have proven that these various HIV strains can be
tracked along four major routes, all originating in Burma,” she said,
referring to Myanmar’s former name.
The highest infection rates are among prostitutes and heroin users in
Myanmar, ranked as the world’s top opium producer until 2003 when
Afghanistan moved to first place.
“Burma is a failed state, rife with civil war and rival gangs of drug, gem
and sex-slave smugglers,” said the report, entitled HIV and National
Security: Where Are The Links?
Garrett said the new technology, known as molecular epidemiology, could
prevent accusations of who spread the epidemic. For example, a year ago,
India charged that “promiscuous Pakistanis” spread HIV in Kashmir.
More serious is Libya’s jailing in 1999 of five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor, accused of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV.
Bulgaria countered that Libya failed to screen its blood transfusion
supplies.
“Were the Libyan government willing to comply, a study of the HIV strains
found in the 426 infected children might offer proof of their origin,”
Garrett’s report said.
Using genetic techniques, researchers have also proved that the rapidly
growing HIV epidemic in the former Soviet Union – Russia, Ukraine and the
Baltic states – appears to stem from one strain spread by drug users nearly
a decade ago. — Reuters
 Back to
News Page
|
