(Staff article from the
GUARDIAN UK on June 1, 2021.)
In the town of
Kalay in Sagaing Division more than 500 people were killed by COVID last month
alone from June-1 to June-30. The Kalaly cemetery now is filled new graves. The
new COVID was not like the old COVID from China last year for the deaths were
very similar to the Typhoid deaths.
In most cases the high fever with internal bleeding were followed by a sudden death like in a Typhoid case. When the dead were tested the usual COVID virus suspected was not found. The only symptom from COVID was a very low Oxygen reading in every dying patient.
Even healthy
individuals are now suddenly dying of COVID. Unlike last year COVID, when most
victims were the elderly and the sick, many young people are now dying of COVID
in Kalay Town. And making the matter worse the new oxygen generator at the
Kalay Hospital was not working yet. No ICU and no ventilators if one catch
COVID one is surely KAPUT.
The severe
Oxygen shortage is also affecting the nearby township of Teedain in the Chin
State. 30 to 40 cylinders of Oxygen is needed every day for about 300 COVID
patients there. Teedain hospital gets Oxygen cylinders from Kalay while Kalay
itself is facing severe Oxygen shortages. So far they are getting Oxygen
cylinders direct from the faraway Mandalay City.
Myanmar doctors sound Covid warning as neighbours see record cases
Doctors in
Myanmar have warned the country would be unable to cope with a major outbreak
of Covid-19 as hospitals and medical facilities struggle to function in the
aftermath of February’s military coup.
Fears are
growing about the potential impact of a highly transmissible variant as
neighbouring countries, chiefly India but also Thailand and Laos, battle record
numbers of Covid cases. Last year, more than 3,000 people in Myanmar died when
the pandemic hit, with the UN warning the country was particularly vulnerable
given its weak public health system.
But there are
concerns a third wave could prove far more deadly because, since the military
seized power earlier this year, most hospitals are not operational due to a
strike by doctors and other medical workers.
The number of
people being tested has plummeted and the vaccination programme has been thrown
into confusion. The UN has warned that medics fear arrest or detention by the
junta “at a time when Myanmar needs them the most”. One doctor based in Yangon
said a fresh outbreak would place extraordinary strain on the public healthcare
system.
“I think it
would be a disaster,” said the medic, who cannot be named for security reasons.
“Even in [the] Covid second wave, the government had a shortage of human
resources – doctors. That’s why many medics and volunteers helped us with
everything. But now, most of the charity clinics’ doctors, medics and
volunteers are being arrested by the junta.”
Another doctor,
who also cannot be named, agreed: “This could become a perfect storm, and
Myanmar is not in a position to respond. Even if the hospital situation
normalises to pre-February levels, the capacity will be critically insufficient
to deal with a large outbreak.”
A medic in
Mandalay, Myanmar’s second biggest city, said she had treated about 20 Covid
patients in recent months and believed the virus was circulating at a low
level. “Fortunately it is not spreading massively,” she said. She worries that
health services would be unable to cope with an outbreak if new variants, such
as the strain first detected in India, spread over the border.
Mandalay general
hospital is barely functioning, and there is only one small charity facility
capable of treating patients with severe Covid in the city, she said. It can
handle about 20 patients, and equipment is basic. “Compared to the hospital, we
have no HFNC [to give patients oxygen] and no patient monitors [which show
vital signs],” she said, adding they have just oxygen cylinders and medicines.
A private
hospital in the city is also capable of caring for patients who develop
pneumonia, she said, but can accept only a very limited number of people, and
the medical bills are unaffordable for most. “For the treatment cost you could
buy a car,” she said.
Patients who
test positive for Covid are referred to the military hospital for treatment,
but are too afraid to go. She fears that she could be targeted by security
forces for caring for patients outside of the military facility.
Alarmed by the
possibility of a major new outbreak, the charity Medical Action Myanmar (Mam)
has said it is raising funds for oxygen concentrators to treat patients. A Mam
UK spokesperson said: “We are frightened of the impact that Covid will have on
an already compromised population.”
According to the
Myanmar ministry of health and sports, to date, the country has had more than
143,000 confirmed Covid cases and 3,216 deaths. However, as testing levels have
fallen to a fraction of what they were before the coup it is impossible to know
the true scale of infections.
Dr Khin Khin
Gyi, speaking for the ministry, warned last month: “There is a possibility of a
third wave of the pandemic coming.” For the medics taking part in the Civil
Disobedience Movement against the junta, which in turn has imposed a violent
crackdown on protesters, the prospect of a health emergency during the strike
brings much soul-searching. “Yes, it is a very difficult decision,” said the
doctor in Yangon. “The ethical and moral dilemma obviously.” But the surgeon
said they would continue “until we win”.
“The unity among junior doctors, thinking about the brighter future if we have democracy, the creativity of generation Z and the resistance of the people (especially the poor ones) against the junta. I think those are the things that motivate me every day. “There are people who died resisting the junta. This is the least I can do.”
