A crowded hospice in Myanmar - home to more than 180 HIV patients.<br/> <br />The country has some 85,000 HIV-infected people according to medical aid groups but many go untreated because of a lack of funds.<br/> <br />Doctors pay visits here but the patients cook and clean for themselves, helped by volunteers.<br/> <br />Though the amenities are basic, patients like 49-year-old Man Zaw Lin Tun are grateful..<br/> <br />He says he didn't know there was medication that could help him live a normal life until doctors explained the treatments.<br/> <br />Now a new UNICEF report says Myanmar's HIV rate is going down, thanks to intense prevention efforts.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF OF HIV/AIDS SECTION, UNICEF, CRAIG MCCLURE SAYING:<br/> <br />"It's important with HIV to continue to provide those prevention and treatment interventions. Otherwise, of course, there is always a possibility that HIV infection prevalence could increase."<br/> <br />However, hospice founder Phyu Phyu Tin however is skeptical of the findings.<br/> <br />She says rates are going down because patients are dying off and much more needs to be done to fight the disease.<br/> <br />A new reform-minded government has vowed to overhaul Myanmar's decrepit health system.<br/> <br />But little change is likely in the short-term for HIV sufferers - often shut off in hospices like this one due to social stigma and neglect.<br/> <br />Sunita Rappai, Reuters
