MEDIA ADVISORY: Country Visit to Myanmar by Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali Krom Muen Suddhanarinatha, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for HIV Prevention for Asia and the Pacific

In her role as the UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador for HIV Prevention for Asia and the Pacific, HRH Princess Soamsawali undertakes a country visit to Myanmar to advance the HIV prevention agenda and catalyze leadership to fast-track the HIV response in the region. HRH Princess Soamsawali will be accompanied by Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, high level officials from the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, representatives from Thai Red Cross and Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.

The visit follows a meeting held on the sidelines of the 35th ASEAN Summit between HRH Princess Soamsawali, HRH Princess Bajrakitiyabha and Her Excellency Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar State Counsellor to foster cross-sharing of experiences and lessons learnt on HIV prevention and to discuss opportunities for collaboration in the areas of community-led service delivery and HIV prevention.

For almost three decades, HRH Princess Soamsawali has been heavily engaged in efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, to encourage new HIV testing methods and to support the introduction of PrEP in Thailand. Among other projects, she has supported the Princess PrEP programme — the first community-based PrEP distribution model which has been used as a model to scale up PrEP services within the national healthcare system.