A new UN report on HIV/AIDS says Burma faces major challenges in its fight to combat the disease. The report, titled “2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic,” lists insufficient financial and manpower resources, communication difficulties in the rural areas, and weakness in assessing home-based care needs and social support for HIV/AIDS patients and orphans. Burma also needs to expand targeted intervention programs such as prevention of mother-to-child transmission, condom use and ARV treatment, the report says. It estimates that some 360,000 people in Burma are HIV positive, or 1.3 percent of the population. In the last year under review, 2004, the government spent 78.05 million kyat (US $61,944) to fight the disease. The 630-page UNAIDS report, released on Tuesday, will be distributed at the 2006 “High Level Meeting” on AIDS in New York’s UN building this week.