Treatment of COVID patients at a secret clinic in Myanmar

Kayah, Myanmar: A handful of Myanmar nurses hiding from the junta run ad hoc clinics to treat COVID patients and resistance fighters with drugs smuggled past military checkpoints. Health workers at the forefront of civil disobedience against the February coup and crackdown on complaints that killed more than 1,300 people are ready to pack and escape, according to local surveillance groups.

The government agency boycott has left many unstaffed hospitals, and the junta has arrested and killed the scores of protesting health workers, rights groups said. Not her real name, Aye Naing quit her job at a public hospital shortly after the coup and began volunteering in June in Kayah State, eastern Myanmar, where military and anti-coup fighters repeatedly clashed.

“Once the fighting begins, we have to run and hide in the jungle,” she told AFP at a clinic in a school abandoned for fighting near the town of Demoso. After the devastating waves of COVID in June and July (new daily cases peaked at 40,000), the junta reduced new infections to about 150 per day, and Omicron variants still remain. He said it has not appeared in Myanmar.

However, due to the disruption of the health system, limited testing is being done. According to UN refugee agencies, about 85,000 people in Kaya have been displaced by violence, and many are rushing to camps where infections are easily spread.

According to her, most Aye Naing patients are from refugee families, including combatants from the local People’s Defense Force (PDF) group. “There were few doctors and health workers in the area, and it was said that villagers wanted them,” she said.

“So I decided to come and tried to get some medicine.” In one village, her team tested a cotton swab through a small crevice in a plastic sheet stretched over a bamboo frame. going. People who test positive are prescribed paracetamol or vitamins. This is the only drug offered.

Donated oxygen should be used sparingly. Canister replenishment includes a trip to the nearest large town, passing the junta checkpoint along the way. After each shift, Aye Naing removes the plastic protective suit and disinfects it with a mask to prepare for the next suit.

Block the drug

In an empty classroom, an infected PDF fighter sits down in a quarantine strumming a guitar. Human Rights Watch recently reported that in areas where resistance to the rule was strong, the military blocked humanitarian aid and the provision of medicines.

“The Burmese army checks everyone at the gate and arrests those who have the drug,” said Hula Aung, another nurse working in a clinic that was renamed to protect her identity. Said. “It’s like we’re endangering our lives.”

Six months after the coup, 190 health care workers were arrested and 25 were killed, according to reports from Insecurity Insight, the Physicians for Human Rights, and Johns Hopkins University. But Aye Naing said she would continue. “My parents’ support strengthens me,” she said. “My dad sent as much medicine as possible.” – AFP