Increased freedom letting health workers to
restricted areas
With
all the attendant political reforms, health workers in Myanmar now have a
chance to address a resurgence of drug-resistant falciparum malaria along the
country's eastern borders.Getting aid to villagers in remote locations has
proved to be a challenge, one in which health workers risk their lives to bring
much needed aid.
LOS
ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Carrying medical aid in backpacks, workers are
dodging bullets and avoiding mines to deliver healthcare to villagers in the
remote border areas.
"Due
to recent political changes, our health workers have more freedom to access
areas formerly restricted by the Burmese army," Mahn Mahn, secretary of
the Back Pack Health Worker Team says.
Improved
healthcare along eastern Myanmar could not have been timed better because of
emerging concern over possible genetic mutation of the Plasmodium falciparum
that makes the deadly parasite resistant to artemisinin, the most effective
anti-malaria drug.
Researchers
have arrived at that conclusion after studying 3,202 patients with falciparum
malaria who were on oral artesunate (an artemisinin derivate). The study,
conducted along the Thailand-Myanmar border, spanned a 10-year period.
According
to a study, the longer time taken for oral anti-malaria drugs to act on
parasites in the bloodstream suggested increasing resistance.
The
World Health Organization has called for more attention to be paid to Myanmar,
in addition to Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam that are under watch to manage
resistance to artemisinin and its derivates.
The
organization has stated its concerns ahead of World Malaria Day, on Apr. 25.
"The four countries most affected by resistance to artemisinin resistance
are Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar. Of these Myanmar has by far the
greatest malaria burden.
"Given
its extensive migrant population, the widespread use of oral artemisinin-based
mono therapies and its close geographical proximity to India, Myanmar is
critical to the success of efforts to prevent the emergence of artemisinin
resistance globally," the WHO adds.
Programs
to combat the spread of malaria in remote ethnic areas need to address the link
between disease prevalence and human rights violations in Myanmar, Bill Davis,
Burma project director for Physicians for Human Rights says.
"Research
done in the Karen state a few years ago showed that people who had experienced
human rights violations were more likely to be positive with malaria than those
who did not experience rights abuse," he says.
"Human
rights abuses have a direct impact on public health," he asserted.
"Forced labor, having food stolen, forced displacement, all have negative
effects on health."
According
to the WHO, there were 2.4 million malaria cases reported in 2010 in South and
Southeast Asia, of which three countries accounted for over 90 percent of the
confirmed cases. India accounted for 66 percent, Myanmar 18 percent and
Indonesia 10 percent.
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