IDP camps in Kayah State’s Hpruso averaging over three senior deaths per month

01 Feb 2023

DMG Newsroom
1 February 2023, Hpruso, Kayah State

An average of three seniors die every month at displacement camps in Hpruso Township, Kayah (Karenni) State, due to shortages of medicines, according to volunteers assisting internally displaced people (IDPs).

More than 2,000 IDPs are taking shelters at the Htee Prunu and Paso IDP camps in Hpruso, and 39 elderly people died over the past 13 months, from the beginning of 2022 to the end of January, after they fell ill and were not able to medicate.

“Most of those who died were elderly persons aged between 70 and 90. They died mostly because they could not get necessary medicine, while they were weakened by malnutrition. Three people die on average per month,” he said.

Those IDP camps provide shelter for villagers displaced from Mo So Mi and Sanpya 6th Mile villages in Demoso Township. Among the 2,000 IDPs, more than 200 are senior citizens.

“There are not sufficient medical supplies, and no clinic,” said one local resident helping IDPs.  “And those places are beyond the reach of health workers. So, senior citizens are more vulnerable.”

There are three IDP camps in Hpruso, all of which have poor access to medicines, clinics and healthcare workers.

A displaced person from the Paso IDP camp said: “We want mobile health teams to come to us frequently. When we send patients to them, patients die on the way. There is greater risk for them as they are in their advanced years. Their health problems have worsened now in the cold season.”

According to Karenni social organisations, 4,403 people were displaced by fighting in Hpruso from December 2021 to the end of January, and among them are 500 elderly persons.