Myanmar general claims AIDS is bein

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Subject: Myanmar general claims AIDS is being used in propoganda war 

Myanmar general claims AIDS is being used in propoganda war 

Agence France Presse  October 12, 1999 08:56 GMT . A leading member of
Myanmar's military junta Tuesday accused opponents of the regime of using
AIDS as a scare tactic in a propoganda war against Yangon. 

Powerful first secretary General Khin Nyunt told a gathering of health
ministers from across the region
that claims of an Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) epidemic in
his country were totally
false. 

"It is regretable that some quarters are using the AIDS scare to attack
Myanmar since their allegations
are false and groundless," Khin Nyunt said. 

However the general, who also heads Myanmar's powerful military
intelligence, admitted AIDS was
"one of the challenges of the 21st century". 

Earlier this year the United Nations AIDS program warned of a growing
epidemic in Myanmar and said
the junta was largely ignoring it. 

It said Myanmar was one of the danger zones in the region, with an
estimated 440,000 Human
Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV) positive people out of a population of about
48 million. 

But Khin Nyunt said in the past decade only 25,000 people had tested
positive for HIV, which causes
AIDS. 

He said Myanmar did not have a major problem with AIDS because its
"cultural values and traditions
prohibited sexual promiscuity". 

"We are convinced it will not reach pandemic scale," said Khin Nyunt. 

He said the government had embarked on HIV education and public awareness
activities to combat the
spread of AIDS. 

Khin Nyunt told ministers at the three-day World Health Organisation (WHO)
meeting here that
Myanmar's biggest health concerns were malaria, tuberculosis and acute
respiratory tract infections. 

Ministers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Nepal,
Sri Lanka, Thailand and
North Korea were attending the first WHO regional meeting to be staged in
Myanmar. 



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