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The World Health Organization has opened three field
offices in Labutta, Bogale
and Pathein/ Myaungmya.
These field offices will coordinate with the township health officials,
hospitals and health agencies to provide a more location-specific response.
According to UN estimates, 260000 people were affected in Bogale, and 190 000 in Labutta.
A joint WHO and Myanmar Ministry of Health mobile health
team has returned after a week-long mission to Ngaputaw,
Labutta and Bogale. This
team gathered information on 126 of 162 tuberculosis patients missing since
the cyclone, through intense community participation in villages and camps.
This is an important intervention to prevent treatment interruption and
emergence of multi-drug resistance. Myanmar is one of the 22 TB
high burden countries with 133,000 registered TB patients in 2007, an
estimated 10% of those co-infected with TB/HIV.
WHO in collaboration with Myanmar Ministry of Health and
Health cluster partners is launching a joint plan for Dengue control and prevention. This plan will target 26 townships in the
cyclone affected areas of Myanmar
and will benefit more than 900 000 house hold.
"Since Dengue is endemic in Myanmar, we
need to have a more aggressive approach to dengue control and prevention in
the aftermath of the cyclone. The Dengue action plan will serve as a
framework for all health partners. Our objective is to prevent dengue
outbreaks through effective disease surveillance and vector control" said
Dr. Adik Wibowo, WHO representative to Myanmar.
WHO is working with the Myanmar Ministry of Health to
continue training of health workers in dengue control and case management. This plan includes larviciding
at a massive scale to control the mosquitoes. The larviciding
will be done over 2-3 weeks and will be repeated after 8 weeks. This is the
first time larviciding at such a huge scale has
been undertaken in Myanmar.
The Ministry of Health will conduct training on fogging, spraying and
larvae control in Pathein on 19 - 20 June. Local
communities are being made aware of simple precautions to prevent dengue.
WHO’s weekly bulletin on disease
surveillance is now providing a clearer picture of diseases in the cyclone
affected areas. Almost all health partners are providing information from
the field to the bulletin through the Early Warning, Alert and Response
System (EWARS). The latest bulletin reported 1191 cases of acute
respiratory infections, 863 cases of acute diarrhea and 708 cases of trauma/injuries,
among others, for the period of 8-14 June in the cyclone affected areas. Accordingly
WHO has distributed medicines and guidelines on treatment of watery
diarrhea to doctors and hospital staff working in the affected areas.
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