Burma: Health Conditions Deteriorate
Below is an excerpt from an article written by Evan Osnos published by
On his 49th day, the baby boy Htun Htun was sickeningly quiet.
He had diarrhea and a fever and lay limp in the arms of his mother, one of thousands of refugees from
Once among the richest countries in
Through dictatorship, neglect and civil war,
As the scale of the health crisis becomes clear, a senior UN official last month publicly urged
"It would be a terrible mistake to wait," said Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in
Health conditions in the country's eastern reaches have deteriorated sharply in the last year, as the regime launched its most intense military campaign against ethnic minorities in more than a decade, say aid workers and diplomats.
"When people talk about a humanitarian crisis, they usually think about a tsunami or an earthquake, but this is a man-made disaster," said Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the
Since the offensive in eastern
Seeking help in border towns
Many refugees from the violence have fled across the countryside in search of food and medicine at Thai border towns like Mae Sot. Ma Kheing, a 31-year-old mother of four, said she abandoned her home
Since coming to power in 1988, the ruling junta has been accused of a range of human-rights abuses, prompting economic sanctions from the
The roots of a crisis were evident by 2000, when the World Health Organization ranked
1 in 3 kids malnourished
The results are alarming: One in three children in
Moreover, a study by Johns Hopkins found that
Yet
Seven medics have been killed by land mines or government troops since the organization began in 1998, said the group's leader, Mahn Mahn, a 42-year-old refugee from Myanmar. During the military offensive, even they are finding it difficult to administer the most basic lifesaving training. […]
In those conditions, it is easy to understand why malaria has emerged as a deadly risk, said David Downham, a Canadian physician who treats refugees in Mae Sot.
"Malaria is an utterly preventable disease," he said. "But if you can't walk safely through the forest without worrying about land mines or violence, then you don't think much about [using] a mosquito net."
250 clinic patients a day
One of the few places refugees can turn is the Mae Tao Clinic, here on the Thai side of the border. Each morning, an average of 250 patients turn up at the clinic with everything from spindly infants and infected gunshot wounds to breech births and incurable cancers.
They are patients like Htun Htun, the baby boy named for the Saturday on which he was born. He had been sick with diarrhea for four days by the time he reached the clinic. His skin was gray. He weighed barely 7 pounds. His eyes drifted open and shut as he lay, cradled and silent, in the hands of his 27-year-old mother, Ah Win, a fruit picker from the
"The number of people increases every year, but the services can't increase as fast," said Maung, who never fathomed the clinic would still be needed 18 years after it began.
"We thought that the military government would change or the international community would solve it," she said. "But it continues, and it's getting worse."