IDPs suffering from chronic illnesses demand proper healthcare services

By DMG 19 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
19 December 2022, Sittwe

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State who are suffering from chronic illnesses are in need of better healthcare services, the afflicted and their advocates say.

Since there is no healthcare in the displacement camp, IDPs are receiving medical treatment at free clinics, and those with more severe cases need help receiving medical treatment at hospitals and private clinics, said U Aung Kyaw Tun, an IDP at Ngasayine Chaung camp in Sittwe who suffers from kidney disease.

“I have been receiving medical treatment at a free clinic for about 10 months as I have no money. Being a disabled person, I want to see doctors at hospitals and private clinics, but I can’t afford it,” he told DMG.

There is no clean water to drink at Ngasayine Chaung displacement camp, so some of the IDPs are suffering from diarrhoea, and some children and young people are also suffering from runny noses, coughing and fever as Myanmar enters its chilliest time of year.

There are also chronic diseases such as tuberculosis at the Wibezzawadi displacement camp in Mingang Ward, Sittwe.

The daughter of a TB sufferer from the Wibezzawadi IDP camp told DMG that IDPs suffering from chronic diseases in places where healthcare is lacking are being treated at external hospitals at high cost.

“There is healthcare for IDPs, but the medicine is not consistent with the disease, so we have to buy medicine from hospitals. Checking my father’s symptoms at the clinic cost about K100,000. Now my father has to inject intravenous drugs twice a week, which costs K35,000 each time,” she explained.

“It is necessary for the health department to provide healthcare for those with chronic diseases,” she added.

Doctors Without Borders previously provided healthcare to chronic stroke patients and children at Myo Oo Khaung IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township, but currently they are facing health problems due to the military council restricting access to the camp, camp manager Ko Win Naing told DMG.

“The chronically ill and children face difficulties with healthcare. Previously, Doctors Without Borders provided healthcare to chronic patients and children [at Myo Oo Khaung IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township], but the military council has restricted humanitarian organisations’ access to IDP camps in Arakan State, so IDPs are facing difficulties,” camp manager Ko Win Naing told DMG.

IDPs are also having difficulty purchasing medicines as the prices of drugs are also rising.

More than 16,000 people were displaced by the latest fighting in Arakan and neighbouring Chin State’s Paletwa Township from August to late November, when the military and Arakan Army reached their informal truce. The number of IDPs including those displaced by the previous fighting totalled more than 90,000 by October.