Cholera Outbreak in Mon State

March 6, 2008

Lawi Weng, HURFOM

Sixty-one Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) of Mon ethnicity have contracted cholera in Ananbon village in eastern Burma, an area controlled by the New Mon State Party (NMSP).

According to an NMSP health program coordinator in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand, 45 Mon persons were diagnosed with cholera this morning, while the other 16 contracted the virus over the past two days. Two cholera patients died last week in the village, according to a local resident.

The clinic in Ananbon village has been so overcrowded that patients have had to be moved to Jagatrao village, one hour’s walk from their homes.

Infected persons are being treated by medics at NMSP-funded clinics in the two villages. Mon health care authorities in Sangkhlaburi yesterday sent 200 bottles of glucose to the clinics to try to prevent the outbreak spreading.

According to a Mon health worker, today they will send another 200 bottles of glucose injections. He said that the clinics do not have enough medicine, but that he would ask the Thai government hospital in Sangkhlaburi for emergency aid.

The cholera virus spread so quickly because villagers do not cover the toilet after they use, he added. This is the first time cholera has been so widespread in the area.

Many people in Mon State lack information about health care. The international medical organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) left the area in December 2005 due to a dispute with Burmese authorities over travel restrictions. However, MSF opened a malaria clinic in Sangkhlaburi in mid-2007 to treat and diagnose Mon patients.

Mon refugees first crossed into Thailand in 1990 following fighting between the Burmese army and the NMSP. Initially, local Thai authorities allowed the Mon people to stay in refugee camps. Then, with the help of international aid agencies, the refugees were able to establish their own camps near Sangkhlaburi.

The NMSP reached a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government in 1995. According to a 2004 Burmese Border Consortium report, there are some 40,000 Mon refugees internally displaced or in temporary settlements inside Burma.

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News