Preventable diseases spread as Shan State IDPs are denied access to primary health care
Nearly half of the residents in a Kesi
Township camp for internally displaced people have reported complaints of respiratory
problems, fever, chronic diarrhea and skin rashes throughout November,
according to volunteers working in the area.
Wan Wa, home to over 1,000 of central Shan
State’s 10,000 IDPs, sits on the Nam Wa, a small stream for which it is named. Locals
worry that this primary water source is now contaminated and causing widespread
illnesses among children and the elderly in the camp. By November 27, 419 of
its residents had complained of health problems.
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| A young boy cooks over a fire in Wan Wa IDP camp in Shan State’s Kesi Township, where over 400 children and elderly people have reported health problems. (Photo: Shan Human Rights Foundation) |
“The result [of these conditions] can only
be a health disaster,” said Dr. Vit Suwanvanichkij, MPH/MD, with the Center for Public Health and Human
Rights at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to malaria and dengue—illnesses
common in Burma—Dr. Suwanvanichkij told SHAN on Monday that IDPs are at risk
for malnutrition, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases including cholera,
as well as labor complications for women who must deliver babies in the
conflict zone.
There are currently six medics working in
the Wan Wa IDP camp with limited resources; volunteers said that no doctors
have been able to visit the area.
According to The Long Road to Recovery, a 2015 comprehensive report on community-based health care in ethnic regions
of Burma, 70 percent of people in these areas relied on local medics—rather
than government services—to meet their basic needs.
But Sai Hin Hseng feels that “now, a doctor
is necessary.”
Of the 419 people who are sick, 293
complained of trouble breathing, as well as a fever. Temperatures in central
Shan State can drop to less than ten degrees Celsius; as early as October, The
Irrawaddy reported
that many IDPs lacked warm clothing to protect them during cold weather.
Another 99 respondents reported suffering
from chronic diarrhea. Twenty-seven IDPs said they had developed unexplained skin
rashes in the current living conditions.
Dr. Suwanvanichkij, who is
also an advisor to the Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai-Burma border, explained that
most of these symptoms and diseases are preventable or easily treatable.
“The bottom line is that these are all direct
consequences of the denial of
access to primary health services,” he said, recommending that “abuses of and
limitations on” aid cease, followed by assessments that would facilitate the
timely provision of necessary assistance to the displaced.
“Continuing to neglect the plight of displaced ethnic civilians will not
only be complicit in fueling a growing health crisis, it will likely
also endanger prospects of true national
reconciliation and sustainable peace in the country,” Dr. Suwanvanichkij said.
On November 27, when the data in Wan Wa was
finalized, the total number of IDPs in the camp had reached 1,023. The
population has since grown and Wan Wa is now reportedly hosting 1,103
internally displaced people.
After almost two months of fighting between
the Burma Army and the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army-North
(SSPP/SSA-N), community-based organizations have estimated that central Shan
State’s IDP population has surpassed 10,000 people. On November 18, SHAN reported
that the main source of emergency aid for displaced communities are funds collected
and delivered by local groups, rather than international agencies.
The IDPs in the Wan Wa camp have fled seven
villages in the area. Offensives by the Burma Army against the SSPP/SSA-N began
on October 6. Since then, the region has only experienced five days without
active armed conflict.
By SIMMA FRANCIS and ZAAI ZAAI LAO MURNG
(Shan Herald Agency for News / S.H.A.N)
Tags: Human Rights, News
