A patient with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has died in Pauktaw Township, Arakan (Rakhine) State, due to a shortage of antiretroviral (ART) medication needed to treat him.

The patient, from Pauktaw Township’s Pyaingtaung Village, succumbed to the disease on 9 July 2025 after being unable to regularly obtain his ART medication since it started being in short supply at the beginning of 2025.

A woman from Pyaingtaung Village said: “The reason [for his death] is unknown, but around the time he died, his hair started falling out in clumps. Since last year, his family had been travelling to places like Kyauktaw Town to try to get medicine. The shortage of medication started earlier this year.”

HIV patients need to take their ART medication regularly and consistently to keep the virus suppressed. Without it, they can face consequences like a weakened immune system, depression, memory loss and, in severe cases, death.

Previously, ART drugs were widely available in pharmacies in Arakan State. However, the junta has now imposed strict blockades on all road and river trade routes from the rest of the country into Arakan State, making it extremely difficult for these drugs to reach the region.

In the past, ART drugs were also provided free of charge by township-level government health departments in Arakan State. But the Arakan Army (AA) has taken over most of Arakan State and government health departments are no longer operating in those areas.

But, the AA and its political wing, the United League of Arakan (ULA), distributed free ART and anti-tuberculosis (TB) drugs to health facilities in the urban areas of the AA-controlled townships of Kyauktaw, Ponnagyun, Mrauk-U, Pauktaw, and Minbya once this year, in January 2025. Despite this, residents of many rural areas of Arakan State still cannot access the medication or any support and continue to suffer.

Including this most recent death, DMG has learnt that a shortage of ART drugs has resulted in at least four preventable deaths of HIV patients in the AA-held Arakan State townships of Pauktaw, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Manaung since January 2024.

A young Arakan social activist said: “A lot of patients, especially those with chronic illnesses, are dying even though they shouldn’t have to, all because of drug shortages. It would make a real difference if we could find a way to support those who need long-term medication. If nothing changes, we’ll keep losing more lives to these shortages.”

In 2023, there were approximately 2,000 HIV patients and 4,000 TB patients in Arakan State, according to sources close to the ULA/AA health department.