In 2018, The Union’s Integrated HIV Care (IHC) Programme provided HIV screening to 97.4 percent of people in treatment for TB living in all 37 townships where the programme operates.
The IHC Programme works in collaboration with the National AIDS Programme (NAP) to administer antiretroviral therapy (ART) and provide care and monitoring, including the management of co-infections such as TB, to people in four regions and one state of Myanmar, covering a population of 7.7 million people.
The programme initiates, on average, 331 people living with HIV onto ART per month. They are treated in IHC clinics and, once the virus is under control and they are stable, are transferred to decentralised sites supported by the NAP or the IHC Programme at an average rate of 172 people per month. The programme relies on a large and active network of people living with HIV who support IHC centres and provide counselling, home-based care, and follow up with people who lapse treatment. Many of the volunteers receive treatment through the IHC Programme themselves.
The programme surpassed all of its targets in 2018, including the goal to assist 87 percent of people living with HIV and who are on ART to achieve a suppressed viral load at 12 months (the programme reached 90.4 percent).