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HIV Co-Infection Clinic - Yangon
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The military’s seizure of power in Myanmar in February 2021 left the public healthcare system in disarray, threatening millions of people’s ability to access healthcare.

MSF teams continue to care for HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C patients, provide basic healthcare and reproductive and sexual healthcare services, and to respond to medical emergencies.

We pioneered HIV treatment in Myanmar – at one point becoming the largest provider of antiretrovirals in the country – and steadily grew a large patient cohort. In 2015, we began working with the Ministry of Health to transfer patients to the decentralised National AIDS Programme, so people can receive care closer to home. This has been suspended since the military seized power, and we are now seeing those patients return to us in greater numbers at our clinics in Shan, Kachin and Tanintharyi.

Despite restrictions on humanitarian access to conflict-affected areas, we have mobile teams based in Sittwe and Maungdaw in Rakhine state, who offer basic healthcare. They also arrange emergency referrals for patients from all communities, including those forcibly detained in camps.

Our activities in 2022 in Myanmar

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2022.

MSF in Myanmar in 2022 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) works to fill gaps in healthcare in Myanmar, where ongoing conflict has disrupted public services and driven over 1.2 million people from their homes.
Myanmar IAR map 2022

In 2022, public health services continued to deteriorate after thousands of doctors and nurses left their jobs to join the civil disobedience movement. Meanwhile, growing insecurity and administrative barriers hampered humanitarian access, further limiting the availability of healthcare.

In response to the drastic reduction in tuberculosis (TB) services across Myanmar, MSF scaled up activities at Aung San TB hospital in the country’s largest city, Yangon, where 50 per cent of the country’s patients with drug-resistant TB go to receive treatment. As well as providing hands-on care, we helped to detect new cases through community outreach activities.

In mid-2022, we resumed the handover of some of our HIV patients to the Ministry of Health. In 2015, we had begun working with the ministry to transfer patients to the national AIDS programme. This was postponed when the military seized power in 2021.

In early 2022, as COVID-19 cases declined, we closed the three dedicated centres that we had set up in Yangon, Hpakant and Myitkyina.

Following an escalation in conflict in Rakhine state in August, the military-imposed restrictions on movements of people and goods, including medications. This meant that we were unable to run our mobile clinics for four months, which further curtailed access to healthcare for people living in vulnerable circumstances. Only emergency referrals were allowed during this period. In December, we resumed services in some locations; however, not at full scale.

In Kachin and Shan states, we responded to people fleeing violence by providing medical assistance and distributing relief items such as hygiene and cooking kits.

 

In 2022
 
Closure of Yangon HIV project
Myanmar

MSF concerned for welfare of healthcare workers and people in Myanmar

Statement 17 Feb 2021
 
Closure Insein Clinic, Yangon Myanmar - Minzayar Oo - June 2019
Myanmar

MSF hands over long-running HIV project in Yangon to ministry of health

Project Update 10 Sep 2020
 
Malawi - Advanced HIV
HIV/AIDS

AIDS death toll stagnating due to lack of testing at community level

Press Release 1 Dec 2019
 
Malawi - Advanced HIV
HIV/AIDS

MSF report "No time to lose" examines the fight against AIDS in 15 countries

Report 27 Nov 2019
 
Overcoming MDR-TB in Conflict: Lashio Clinic
Myanmar

Displaced couple cured of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Shan state

Project Update 17 Oct 2019
 
The “big road” in Cox’s Bazar
Rohingya refugee crisis

ASEAN should show true leadership on Rohingya, Myanmar

Op-Ed 13 Sep 2019
 
Kutupalong megacamp
Rohingya refugee crisis

Two years on: No solutions in sight for the Rohingya

Project Update 20 Aug 2019
 
Ah Nauk Ye camp, Central Rakhine
Rohingya refugee crisis

Being Rohingya in Myanmar: “We hold our frustration inside because we cannot speak out”

Voices from the Field 20 Aug 2019
 
Kutupalong megacamp
Rohingya refugee crisis

Being Rohingya in Bangladesh: “The population has been completely suspended in time”

Voices from the Field 20 Aug 2019