Drug shortages due to transport difficulties, only 10 ART pills per month can be distributed

In Myitkyina, Kachin State, people who rely on ART medication are unable to continue their treatment due to transportation difficulties and military conflicts, and the main hospital can now only provide a 10-day supply of ART drugs, according to reports.

Since clashes broke out around the end of last year on the access routes into Myitkyina, Kachin State, the flow of goods and medicines linked to the military junta has come to a halt, including essential medicines needed by health departments, it is understood.

"The Mandalay-Myitkyina routes have been affected by fighting and weather problems, so the health department has been short of medicines for a long time. No matter what illness, we no longer dare to hand out medicine as freely as before—medicines are that scarce," a health department staff member told MyoTaw.

At the main hospital, the shortage of ART drugs used to control HIV has also become critical. Previously, each patient could receive one bottle of medicine per month as standard, but starting a few days ago, each patient can only be given 10 pills, according to reports.

"The number of patients is said to be in the thousands. With so many patients coming to collect medicine, the amount given out has decreased, and with the military-political pressures and the struggle for survival, some have stopped coming to collect their medicine at all—many patients have resigned themselves to death. Even those who do come from around the town can only get 10 pills," a source close to the health department told MyoTaw.

In Myitkyina Township, due to military issues, economic problems, and other circumstances, people are no longer even collecting the free ART medicine provided by the main hospital. Some who simply stay put are dying because of the conflict, and there are those who have decided they will just accept death, it is reported.