Burma steps up precautionary measures against Swine Flu

by Salai Pi Pi
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 21:06

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Burmese authorities along the Thai-Burmese border say they have stepped-up precautionary measures to check people passing through the border for the presence of Swine Flu.

A medical staff from a hospital in the eastern Burmese town of Tachileik, which shares a border with Mea Sai in Thailand, on Wednesday told Mizzima that a medical team in Tachileik has been assigned to carry out medical checks on travelers at border check-points as a preventive measure against the entry of the A(H1N1) virus – popularly know as Swine Flu – into Burma.

“We are checking travelers [particularly tourists entering from Thailand] at border checkpoints,” said the source.

But an official at a private hospital in Tachileik told Mizzima that though medical teams from the township hospital have been assigned to check on travelers at border gates, the team lacks proper equipment and that those contaminated by the virus could possibly pass through without being detected.

“I saw medical staff testing travelers at the checkpoint. They only test for fever by examining the foreheads and ears of the travelers,” another medical staff said, “They don’t have advanced equipment like computer scans, like the ones that are used by a Thai medical team on the other side of the border.”

She said that although there have not yet been any cases of Swine Flu detected in the area, the news has prompted people to avoid eating pork, drastically depreciating the cost of the meat.

“The price of pork has drastically dropped as the people begin to avoid eating pork,” she said.

Similarly, a medical staff in Kawhtaung on the southernmost tip of Burma which shares a border with the Thai town of Ranong, said staff from Kawhtaung General Hospital are conducting medical check-ups on travelers at the border gate.

The staff remarked that the Tenasserim Division Directorate of the Department of Health had reportedly instructed local medical staff to conduct checks on travelers and to create public awareness on Swine Flu.

“According to the instruction of the health director, we are now conducting medical checks at every border gate, including the one on Myoma Bridge,” the staff member told Mizzima on Wednesday.

She continued, saying, “We have also conducted rehearsal training in hospitals on how to cure infected patients.”

Meanwhile, a local from Myawaddy town in Karen state, which borders the Thai town of Mae Sot, said authorities have imposed restrictions on the cross-border trade of pigs at border checkpoints, though there are no medical checks on humans as of yet.

However, a Burmese resident in Mae Sot said that despite the restrictions, businessmen are still trading domestic animals, including pigs.

“Though trading on domestic animals, including pigs, is banned, some dealers are still smuggling pigs through other routes,” explained the man.

On Tuesday, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health confirmed that tests carried out by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention had confirmed the A[H1N1] virus was found in two Thai citizens.

"There are two confirmed cases of A[H1N1]. Both of them contracted it in Mexico," said Public Health Minister Witthaya Kaewparadai at a press conference on Tuesday in Bangkok.

On the other hand, Burmese officials contend the country remains free from Swine Flu and boasts that it has taken sufficient precautionary steps by issuing alerts to hospitals and pig farms on the potential outbreak of Swine Flu since the virus was first detected in Mexico a month ago.

“So far there is no sign of Swine Flu in Myanmar [Burma]. But we are taking precautions and are conducting medical check-ups at the international airports,” an official at the Ministry of Health in Naypyitaw, who declined to be named, told Mizzima.

But Dr. Voravit Suwanvanichkij, Research Associate at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who monitors Burma’s public health system, told Mizzima that with the lack of a functioning public health system in Burma, it is doubtful that authorities would even notice an outbreak of the disease.

Dr. Voravit said a disease such as Swine Flu or Avian Influenza can only be effectively contained through a properly functioning public health system, which Burma does not have.

Further, checking at airports or any other entry point in most cases does not prevent the entry of the disease because the method of checking only accounts for the level of fever, he noted. And as fever is the symptom of many other diseases including normal flu, it would be difficult to determine if the fever was linked to Swine Flu, unless laboratory diagnoses are included in the process.

According to the World Health Organization, on Monday, 30 countries across the world have officially reported 4,694 cases of A(H1N1) infection.