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Washington Post, 11 March 2000
Asian HIV epidemics follow Burma's heroin
trail |
By SUSAN OKIE
WASHINGTON
Saturday 11 March 2000
Burma's booming heroin industry is helping to kindle the AIDS epidemics in nearby countries, including China, India and Vietnam, with outbreaks of the infection flaring like a fuse along routes used by traffickers to transport the drug.
A study by American, Chinese and Indian researchers tracks how different strains of the AIDS virus have followed the path of heroin in communities along four separate trafficking routes in the region. The spread of the human immunodeficiency virus accompanies a rise in local drug use that reflects the flooding of the market with Burmese heroin.
Burma, the world's second-largest producer of opium and heroin behind Afghanistan, is suffering from its own twin epidemics of drug addiction and AIDS.
The findings of the research team, led by Chris Beyrer of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, underscore how quickly drug trafficking can carry HIV into remote, previously unaffected areas.
"In every market town along (a trafficking) route, there are new outbreaks of drug use," said Mr Beyrer, whose findings were published in the January issue of the journal AIDS. "Overland routes involve local people, highways, local traders and, sadly, have led to this burgeoning AIDS epidemic for India, China and Vietnam."
Opium production in Burma doubled in 1989, the year after the country's authoritarian military regime assumed control. Although production has declined in the past three years, Burma accounts for about 80 per cent of the opium production in South-East Asia, according to a US State Department report released last week.
The research project began about 18 months ago, when Mr Beyrer was invited by the Chinese Government to help investigate an HIV outbreak among heroin users in the southern province of Guangxi, bordering Vietnam.
This border area was a mountainous rainforest, impossible to patrol, Mr Beyrer said. Heroin from Laos and Burma was being transported into northern Vietnam. Chinese users and small-scale traffickers "were going across, meeting their Vietnamese counterparts on the other side, and testing heroin" by self-injection, often sharing needles.
The researchers used three separate techniques to track the spread of HIV along the drug-trafficking routes. Using blood samples from HIV-infected people, they analysed the genetic differences among viral strains circulating in the region. They interviewed users, dealers, drug treatment counsellors and other key informants about local drug availability, smuggling routes and injection practices.
They also used data on opium poppy cultivation compiled by the State Department, as well as information on heroin trafficking obtained from the CIA, the Drug Enforcement Administration and foreign intelligence sources.
The researchers found clear evidence that specific viral subtypes follow the heroin trade routes. Most of the earliest cases of HIV infection in China were discovered in three border counties in Yunnan province, among male drug addicts and their wives.
Another route, into north-eastern India, was found to be one of the major heroin routes out of Burma, Mr Beyrer said.
When the team traced a new trafficking route all the way to Urumqi in north-western China, Mr Beyrer said he pointed on the map to neighboring Kazakhstan and asked health officials what was the next city on the highway. "This epidemic is going to happen there," he told them.
"Six months later," Mr Beyrer recalled, "I get an e-mail from the World Health Organisation (saying) that there's been an explosive outbreak of HIV in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and somehow there end up being 5000 drug injectors there."
South China Morning Post, 11 March 2000
Migrants squeezed for cash
WILLIAM BARNES in Bangkok
The Government is putting the squeeze on the many thousands of its citizens working overseas by demanding they repatriate half their earnings through their local embassies.
This desperate move for hard currency by a military regime trying to keep a sagging economy upright was proving extraordinarily tough, said sources among Burmese working overseas.
Rangoon already demands that anyone working abroad pay 10 per cent of their earnings as a tax - if they want to keep getting their passport renewed.
This is on top of local taxes.
"It is very hard for some people. They are forced to go to foreign countries because there are no jobs at home, yet the Government is still twisting their arms," said a Burmese businessman in Bangkok.
Under the new rules, overseas Burmese are supposed to deposit half their earnings at the local embassy. This money can later be collected - in the form of unpopular Foreign Exchange Certificates - from the Myanmar Foreign Trade Bank inside the country.
Burmese are also required to prove their overseas income and their holiday entitlement. They even need permission to resign.
Washington Post, 10 March 2000
Heroin kindles another epidemic
Burma's booming heroin industry is helping to kindle the AIDS epidemics in nearby countries, including China, India and Vietnam, with outbreaks of the infection flaring like a fuse along routes used by traffickers to transport the drug.
A study by American, Chinese and Indian researchers tracks how different strains of HIV have followed the path of heroin in communities along four trafficking routes in the region. The spread of HIV accompanies a rise in local drug use that reflects the flooding of the market with Burmese heroin.
Burma, the world's second-largest producer of opium and heroin behind Afghanistan, is suffering from its own twin epidemics of drug addiction and AIDS.
The findings of the research team, led by Mr Chris Beyrer of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, underscore how quickly local drug trafficking can carry HIV into remote, previously unaffected areas.
"In every market town along [a trafficking] route, there are new outbreaks of drug use," said Mr Beyrer, whose findings were published in the journal AIDS. "Overland routes involve local people, highways, local traders and, sadly, have led to this burgeoning AIDS epidemic for India, China and Vietnam."
Opium production in Burma doubled in 1989, the year after its authoritarian military regime, known as the State Peace and Development Council, assumed control.
Although production has declined in the past three years, Burma currently accounts for about 80 per cent of opium production in South-East Asia, according to a US State Department report.
The research project began when Mr Beyrer was invited by China to help investigate an HIV outbreak among heroin users in the southern province of Guangxi, bordering Vietnam.
"On both sides of the border, the amount of heroin had been very rapidly increasing," he said.
Chinese users and small-scale traffickers "were going across, meeting their Vietnamese counterparts on the other side, and testing heroin" by self-injection, often sharing needles.
The researchers found clear evidence that specific viral sub-types follow the heroin trade routes. For instance, in Guangxi province, sub-type E is common, mimicking the situation in most of South-East Asia. In Yunnan province, along China's border with Burma, sub-type C prevails.
Most of the earliest cases of HIV infection in China were discovered in three border counties in Yunnan province, among male drug addicts and their wives.