This photograph taken on December 24, 2014
shows a Naga ethnic woman bathing her child in Lahal township in the remote
Sagaing region located in northern Myanmar. (AFP photo)
YANGON -
Myanmar health officials have confirmed that a measles outbreak is behind the
deaths of more than 30 people, mostly children, in a remote part of the country
as authorities rush to treat victims.
The
outbreak has struck the far corner of Myanmar's northern Sagaing region, a
remote and mountainous area which borders eastern India and is populated by
people from the Naga tribes.
The
deaths began in June and highlight how vulnerable Myanmar's more isolated
populations are in a country where health care was never prioritised under
decades of brutal and inept junta rule.
It is one
of the many crippling legacies that the newly installed civilian government of
Aung San Suu Kyi is trying to tackle.
Than Tun
Aung, deputy director general of the disease control department at Myanmar's
health ministry, said labwork from the worst hit town of Lahal had come back
positive for measles.
"It's
measles," he told AFP late Friday. "So we are sending more team
members and cooperating with medical doctors from the military as well."
Local
Naga representatives had previously accused the central government of being
slow to act.
The
region is impoverished and very remote, a mountainous border area where roads
and electricity are scant.
out six
days to reach the villages. Communication there is also difficult," Than
Tun Aung said.
He said
they had confirmed a total of 31 deaths in Lahal region, half of whom were
under 15.
The
Council of Naga Affairs gave a higher toll of 39 dead in nine villages with all
the deceased children.
Although
health budgets slightly increased in the last few years of outright army rule
-- which ended with last November's elections -- Myanmar is still one of the
lowest spenders in the world on healthcare as a share of GDP.
Last
year, with the help of the World Health Organization and the UN, Myanmar
embarked on a mass vaccination programme with the aim of eradicating measles
and rubella by 2020.
AFP
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