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Death toll from dengue mounts in Mon state
Mon 21 May 2007,
Joi Htaw, IMNA
The death toll following the outbreak of dengue in Mon State is higher than the official figures because
health workers, afraid of being blamed by the higher authorities, are suppressing the actual number, local people in Ye Township said.
Not less than 17 children have died of dengue in Kyaung-ywa village public hospital in Ye Township. The hospital could not provide sufficient medicine for treatment, a resident said. He added that patients afflicted with dengue are still coming even though the outbreak was reported over a month ago.
Health workers have reported that only seven children have died. Doubting the report Ye authorities sent the police from Ye town to the village. The police are maintaining a low profile to observe the situation, said a Kyaung-ywa resident.
Kyaung-ywa hospital was built three years ago and the village is located 12 miles from Ye town. Medicine for treatment are sent from Ye hospital but health workers in the hospital do not have sufficient medicine to tackle the disease, the residents said.
Similar to the Kyaung-ywa hospital, there are not enough medicines in Moulmein (Mawlamyine) hospital either, said a family whose son was cured. They spent about Kyat 100,000 in a week at the hospital in the capital of Mon state. The hospital could not provide medicines and they had to buy all the medicine the patient needed.
Dengue has been causing at least one or two deaths ever day, a Mudon Township resident who went to
Moulmein hospital in the last two days said. However, there are more patients in private clinics than hospitals, he added.
The Yu-Nya- Htaik, a private clinic is full of patients. This is because people have no faith in government hospitals, a Thanpyuzayart resident said.
Ye residents said they had seen two people dying from dengue fever but they were not sure about the exact number of deaths.
The rural areas far from town face an acute shortage of medicines to treat dengue and health workers are suppressing the number of deaths as in Kyaung-ywa village.
Kyaung-ywa village is surrounded by 10 villages and has approximately 900 households.
If a patient recovers in three days he or she is out of danger, a Kyaung-ywa resident said.
Health workers and members of the Myanmar Women’s Affair Federation (MWAF) from Ye visited Kyaung-ywa on May 13 on hearing about the high death toll in the village. They talked about the disease and asked villagers to clean the areas where mosquitoes breed, said a resident.
The health workers and MWAF members who came to Kyaung-ywa said that villagers have to pay Kyat 1,000 as fine even if a single mosquito was found in their houses.
IMNA has recorded 20 deaths in Ye Township, 10 in Thanpyuzayart Township and eight in Moulmein hospital.
Following the outbreak of dengue in Mon State no one knows the exact death toll and health workers are not revealing the actual number of deaths. People cannot rely on government hospitals and prefer going to private clinics.
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