by Mungpi
Wednesday, 15 July 2009 20:28
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Detection of two persons infected with A (H1N1) virus in Burma could just be the ‘tip of an iceberg’ and there could be many more infected people, who have gone undetected, an US medical expert said.
Dr. Voravit Suwanaichkij, Research Associate at the Centre for Public Health & Human Rights in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said, given the appalling state of the public health system there could be many more people infected with the virus but are going undetected.
“The two cases detected most likely reflect just the tip of the iceberg, and there are probably far more individuals who are infected but are just not being recognized or treated,” Dr. Vit said.
Burma’s state-run newspaper on Wednesday said, the second person infected with type A(H1N1) virus has been quarantined and is recovering and will soon be discharged from the Waibagi hospital in Rangoon.
According to the ruling junta’s official mouthpiece, the man, aged 20, was admitted to Waibagi hospital on July 8, after he was found to have fever and cough.
But after proper medical treatment, “he has been getting better with no fever since 11 July. Arrangements have been made for him to be discharged from the hospital after the certain period of monitoring his progress,” the paper said.
The man is the second person that Burma’s military government had officially announced of being infected with the H1N1 virus. Earlier, the government said a 13-year old girl was confirmed having been infected with the virus and was quarantined in Rangoon general hospital. She was later discharged.
But Dr. Vit pointed out that the two cases of detecting A(H1N1) that Burma had announced “illustrates the many shortcomings in Burma's public health system.”
He said Burma’s military government spends less than US$ 1 per capita per year on health care, and its deeply flawed economic policies have and continue to drive the country into deeply entrenched poverty.
“Given that almost three quarters of the average Burmese household's budget is spent on food alone that leaves precious little for "luxuries" such as health or education, particularly private education,” he added.
The two cases that the government had announced were people who were better off as they were in Rangoon, where most of the facilities are available.
But with most Burmese living outside Rangoon, where health facilities and personnel are even more limited and poverty even more entrenched, there are much more chances that people could be infected with the virus but have gone undetected, Dr Vit said.
Besides, he said, with neighbouring Thailand confirming extensive spread of the influenza virus, and with the porous border between the two countries, the possibility of the virus spreading to Burma are more.
Thailand has for years been a favoured destination for Burmese migrants as well as refugees fleeing conflicts between the Burmese Army and ethnic insurgents in eastern Burma.
Dr. Vit said these migrants often do not travel by air but cross the border overland. They often avoid being detected by the authorities, which leaves the chances of the virus spreading without being noticed.
But the Burmese government, in its mouthpiece, said they have set-up surveillance measures and have checked a total of 2,001,039 people, which account for screening for the virus among 86,686 flight passengers at the airports, 6,573 at seaports and 1,907,780 at border checkpoints from 28 April to 13 July.
“From 28 April to 12 July, 15,009 people with symptoms of fever and suspected flu had been kept under surveillance at hotels and their residences. Of them, 6,184 are free from surveillance because the 10-day period of surveillance is up,” the paper said.
But Dr. Vit said, in the long-term and on a population-level, there remains no substitute to a good public health system in handling such an outbreak.
A good public health system is one which everyone can access. A system that is adequately funded, and has a cadre of trained personnel and proper laboratory facilities that can independently collect, analyze, and disseminate health-related information.
But Dr. Vit said with Burma's inability to control "traditional" public health challenges including curable diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, and even illegal dyes in its staple food and pickled tea leaves, indicates a poor prospect of controlling any future health challenges including influenza pandemics.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
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