Dr Phone Myint Win, Mr Alastair Lucas and Professor Brendan Crabb in Yangon.

Burnet’s Director and CEO, Professor Brendan Crabb and Myanmar Country Representative, Dr Phone Myint Win officially launched the Institute’s in-country program, Evidence to Action: Burnet Myanmar 2014 to 2016, at a special event in Yangon this week.

Among the guests were Australian Ambassador to Myanmar Ms Bronte Moules, Myanmar’s Deputy-Director General for the Department of Medical Research Dr Myan Phone Kyaw and Burnet Institute Chairman Mr Alastair Lucas AM.

Professor Crabb outlined Burnet’s wide-ranging projects addressing infectious diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, maternal, neonatal and child health, and school health.

“Burnet is now building on 10 years of experience in Myanmar to expand our response to supporting and addressing the public health needs of the most vulnerable and isolated populations,” he said.

“New areas of work include community-based care for malaria with populations that have been isolated from services due to ethnic conflict and geographical isolation, and collaborating with the National TB Program in designing a new initiative to address TB co-infection in HIV-positive communities.

“Another exciting and important area in the program is the expansion of our research capacity to address knowledge gaps in the national health agenda to inform policy development and program implementation.”

Dr Phone said the Myanmar team is also undertaking direct-service delivery in the area of HIV prevention related to injecting drug use through drop-in centres and outreach services.

“This new approach complements our ongoing commitment to capacity building of civil society organisations in their role as service providers in the health system,” he said.