Health

The winner of the 2011, Padoh Mahn Sha Young Leader Award is Saw Htoo Htoo Eh, a field worker with the humanitarian group Free Burma Rangers. Saw Htoo Htoo Eh described his work to Karen News. “I collect information about the needs of displaced children in conflict zones in Karen State. From the information I collect I assess and organize…

Non-profit NGO clinics along the Thai-Burma border remain the best hope of healthcare for poverty struck people from Burma seeking treatment – economic migrants, refugees and internally displaced people. A dirt road bustling with activity marks the centre of Mae Tao Clinic in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. The Clinic echoes with the babble of Burmese, and Karen.…

As Burma’s Parliament prepares for its next session, the London based pro-democracy advocates, ‘Burma Campaign UK’, called on the international community to scrutinize Burma’s upcoming annual budget as a sign of its commitment to implement reforms that benefit the people. Last year’s, President Thein Sein’s government allocated just 1.3 percent of the government budget to health, and just over 4…

Billionaire and renown philanthropist, George Soros was the latest in a long list of dignitaries to visit Mae Tao Clinic (also known as Dr Cynthia’s Clinic) based in the Thai border town of Mae Sot. Mr Soros visited the MTC on his way back from a series of high profile meetings in Burma with government and opposition politicians, including the…

Thousands of well-wishers turned up at the Children Development Center, a migrant school based in the border town of Mae Sot to celebrated Dr. Cynthia Maung’s 52nd birthday on the 6th December. Dr Cynthia founded the Mae Tao Clinic in 1989 to treat refugees and migrant workers from Burma. The Clinic is located in the Thai-Burma border town of Mae…

Health workers in the Maija Yang region of Kachin State are worried that the winter cold will be dangerous to young and old people in the makeshift camps built to shelter villagers displaced by fighting between the Burma Army and the Kachin Independent Army. Medics at the camps say they are now seeing many more patients with influenza, diarrhea and…

The Burma Army in Papun Township has arrested two community health workers from the Back Pack Health Worker Team who were giving medical treatment to villagers in the area. The Back Pack Health Worker Team is an independent and non-profit organization that has been delivering primary health care for over 13 years to people in conflict zones and rural areas…

The Karenni Backpack Relief Team said a severe whooping cough outbreak in the two villages; in northern Hpruso Township, Kayah State has killed two children and has so far infected more than 50 children. Khu Denia, the director of the KBRT told Karen News that the disease starting to appear among village children in the first week of October. “We…

Community workers in Sanklaburi province of Thailand and the Three Pagodas Pass region of Burma claim Medecins Sans Frontieres patients undergoing medical treatment from the NGO will face difficulties now that the organization has withdrawn its services from Thailand. The Kwai River Christian Hospital’s health care coordinator, Saw Harray Moo, who has been visiting the homes of tuberculosis patients in…

A severe influenza outbreak among school children in Si Poe Khee village, Pai Kyone Township last week has so far infected more than 40 children. Saw Mu Ka Paw, the Si Poe Khee school’s head master said many children were unable to attend school and people are worried the influenza will infect adults. “We don’t have any clinic in our…