Health

The World Health Organisation classifies dengue as one of the leading causes of serious illness and death in children. WHO has listed dengue as the world’s fastest growing mosquito-borne disease and reports that almost half the world’s population is at risk. Health workers at Mae Tao Clinic, located in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, are running a campaign…

Community health workers in the Thai border town of Mae Sot have developed a health education campaign under the banner of Stop Dengue – Protect Your Family! Health workers said that the aim of the campaign is to combat the spread of the mosquito borne infection among the region’s migrant workers. Ms Aya Tabata, a project officer with the Japanese…

Poe Cho lies small on the floor of the children’s ward at Mae Tao Clinic. His tiny body has been stilled by dengue fever. Poe Cho, 7, was infected by dengue when bitten by the Aedes mosquito while staying at the Yaw Bu Temple in Myawaddy. For three days, Poe Cho, fought against the headaches, fever, aching joints and general…

Mae Tao Clinic and the Burma Children Medical Fund, on the Thai Burma border, welcomed the arrival of more than 140 wheelchairs, donated for young children in need. The Burma Children Medical Fund organized the wheelchairs for the cross-border community with the help of several other organisations including Wheelchairs for Kids in Perth, Australia, Allied Pickfords Thailand, the Rotary Club…

As monsoon rains sweep across Burma from India, villagers in Karen State and along the Thai Burma border are prey to malaria. In the last 10 years, the fight against the malaria parasite has seen dramatic decreases in deaths. The World Health Organisation estimates that there has been a 42% reduction in mortality rates from the parasite in the last…

An estimated 38 million people are living with HIV globally. Half a million of those are in Thailand and a further 200,000 in Burma. Yet HIV is treated with harsh stigma in the two countries, where people suffer discrimination, are abused – some kill themselves. People from Burma and Thailand who had HIV spoke to Karen News of how they…

Ma Ohn Kyi, 44, leans on one foot against a wall inside Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai Burma border. “It took three days by car and one month’s wages to get here,” she says, “it will cost another month’s wages to get back home when I am better.” What should have been a routine operation to fix a broken…

A new clinic that will provide free primary health care to villagers in Kawkareik Township is at its final construction stage and will soon be ready to receive patients. The clinic is being built in Nan Shwe Mone village, Kawkareik Township under the initiative of the Karen National Union, will give free treatment and healthcare services to villagers from rural…

The Mae Tao Clinic on the Thai Burma that provides free healthcare to migrant workers and people from Burma, claims it seen a fall in the number of patients because of a lack in freedom of travel since the Thai military coup of May 22. The head of the in-patients registration department, Ko Aung Myo, said the average rate of…

A row of young women lie next to their newborn babies at Mae Tao Clinic’s Reproductive Health In-Patient ward on the Thai-Burma border. Most of the 42 women are young migrant workers, in their late teens or early twenties, and earning barely enough to live on, they wonder how they will be able to afford to raise a child. One…