Hi there. It’s Rhona here. It’s good to be back. I have missed you. But this is not a day for chatting. This is a very significant day for human rights and global health.

After years of being ignored by the international media, Burma is now in the spotlight. Events are constantly evolving and no one knows what will happen next. 19 years ago, students led the uprising against the military junta and over 3000 people were killed. This time, Monks are leading the way. But how will the situation end? Every newscast is pontificating on this right now and international leaders are undecided.

This may be the first time that many have heard about the humanitarian misery of the Burmese people and the human rights abuses imposed on them by the military government which has been in power since 1962. But there is also a health disaster happening in Burma right now that has received little attention.

Decades of neglect, civil war, and corruption have rendered Burma’s health system incapable of responding to infectious diseases and other health risks. This is severely worrying given that almost 90% of Burma’s 52 million population are at risk of malaria, and the country has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world with nearly 97000 cases detected every year. There are 25000 estimated new infections of HIV every year, with significant spreading of the disease in young people and high-risk groups. A third of children are chronically malnourished, 15% of the population is food insecure, and the under-5 mortality rate is 106 per 1000 compared with 21 per 1000 in neighbouring Thailand.

Yet the military government spends less than US$1 per person on health and education every year—national expenditures in health and education are 3% and 10%, respectively. The military, including an army of over 450000 soldiers, receives 40% of the budget, even though Burma has been at peace with its neighbouring countries for decades.

According to a recent report by researchers from the Human Rights Center of the University of California at Berkeley and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Burmese military is destroying medical supplies intended for civilian populations and detaining and killing medical workers in areas of internal conflict. These abuses have left the population vulnerable to death and illness from malnutrition, malaria, tuberculosis, night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency, and diarrhoeal diseases.

The report—which is based on data on infectious diseases gathered from health clinics and interviews with health professionals, governmental officials, and non-governmental and community-based organisations—also states that the country’s health system incapable of responding to these endemic infectious diseases and that even with substantial amounts of foreign aid Burma’s capacity to curb these diseases is hindered by its military leaders. Yet the military government has severely restricted the movement of international aid agencies and non-governmental organisations with the result that some have had to leave the country.

So when you hear, watch, listen to the unfolding situation in Burma, please also bear the health situation in mind. Thanks Rhona

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 11:01 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.