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Source: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/mya...022111035.html
Malaria cases on the rise along Thai-Burma border, health officials say
Fleeing war, people are more exposed and vulnerable to the mosquito-borne disease.
RFA Burmese
2022.11.26
Malaria rates are spiking along the Thai-Burma border, health officials in the area say, as people flee fighting in Myanmar that has forced them to live exposed to the elements, increasing their chances of getting bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes.
“These refugees are fleeing war. They have no home to live in -- they stay under a bunch of bamboo trees or at the bank of a brook,” said an official at a camp in Myawaddy, which lies across the river from the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
Of the 1,140 civilians at the camp, about 5 percent are infected with malaria each month, he said, asking not to be identified for his safety. “They still have to live at the bank of a brook in poor conditions until now,” he said. “That’s why more and more people were infected with malaria.”
In Mae Sot, the Mae Tao Clinic has seen malaria cases jump more than 10-fold this year. It treated only 20 patients for malaria last year, but they’ve had 200 in the last nine months alone...
Malaria cases on the rise along Thai-Burma border, health officials say
Fleeing war, people are more exposed and vulnerable to the mosquito-borne disease.
RFA Burmese
2022.11.26
Malaria rates are spiking along the Thai-Burma border, health officials in the area say, as people flee fighting in Myanmar that has forced them to live exposed to the elements, increasing their chances of getting bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes.
“These refugees are fleeing war. They have no home to live in -- they stay under a bunch of bamboo trees or at the bank of a brook,” said an official at a camp in Myawaddy, which lies across the river from the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
Of the 1,140 civilians at the camp, about 5 percent are infected with malaria each month, he said, asking not to be identified for his safety. “They still have to live at the bank of a brook in poor conditions until now,” he said. “That’s why more and more people were infected with malaria.”
In Mae Sot, the Mae Tao Clinic has seen malaria cases jump more than 10-fold this year. It treated only 20 patients for malaria last year, but they’ve had 200 in the last nine months alone...