Health News
2005-07-23
Study: Myanmar is
the root of Asia's AIDS epidemic
According to a
Council on Foreign Relations study authored by Laurie
Garrett and released this week, genetic fingerprinting can
According to a
Council on Foreign Relations study authored by Laurie
Garrett and released this week, genetic fingerprinting can
trace HIV's spread throughout Asia to Myanmar. "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," Garrett told a news conference.
Molecular epidemiology, or genetic fingerprinting,
allowed scientists to identify changes in the evolution of
the virus. "Several research teams have proven that
these various HIV strains can be tracked along four
major routes, all originating in Burma," Garrett said,
using Myanmar's former name. The highest HIV infection
rates are among prostitutes and heroin users in Myanmar,
which was 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," according to the
report, titled "HIV and National Security: Where Are
the Links?"
Researchers using
genetic fingerprinting have found that the rapidly
growing HIV epidemic in Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic
states appears to stem from one strain spread by drug
users nearly a decade ago. Garrett reported that
nearly all the AIDS viruses circulating in the region
closely match genetically; were introduced into the area in
1996-1997; and are being spread by injection-drug
users. (Reuters)
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