Get ready for MERS

Hospitals in Yangon, Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw and Bagan-Nyaung-U will make preparations to accept patients with suspected Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), according to the Public Health Department of the Health Ministry.  

At present, monitors from health departments are installed at airports, ports and border gates to prevent MERS entering Myanmar, with particular attention being paid to arrivals from affected countries.

The ministry is following procedures set up during the 2003 SARS and the H5N1 bird flu outbreaks, under the guidance of National Health Committee.

MERS has spread to 25 countries, with the outbreak in South Korea the largest outside Saudi Arabia. 

Last month, a 68-year-old man, now known as “patient zero”, walked into a Korean hospital with a cough and fever. He had recently returned from four Middle Eastern countries. Now schools have been shut and thousands are under quarantine.

The virus causes coughing, fever and shortness of breath, among other symptoms. It is fatal in about 40 per cent of cases.

On another front, the country is battling against the sharp increase in dengue fever patients. 

According to the ministry, the number of dengue fever cases this year has reached 7,043, causing 28 deaths.

Mon State, Yangon and Ayeyarwady regions are the worst hit.

In 2014, 13,806 cases were recorded across the whole of Myanmar except for Chin State, leaving 89 dead.

Than Aung, the health minister, said that it would combat the disease with the Ministry of Education.

He told an Asean summit on dengue fever: “The number of patients has been increasing since April. The Ministry of Health has added momentum to its preventive measures against the disease, joining hands with the education ministry.”

Khin Nan Lon, a Yangon district medical officer, said: “Some countries are reporting tolerance to antibiotics. The medication is ineffective. We don’t rely on spraying insecticide. It is essential to spray after a case is reported but if people use these sprays before the endemic hits, it brings a tolerance to the medicine. But people should not confuse spraying with protection from the disease.” 

The outbreak in Pyay District, western Bago Region, has already caused 86 cases during the early monsoon period and district medics point to a lack of coordination among the authorities.

In 2013, there were 20,550 dengue cases and 85 deaths.

Representatives from Myanmar was among those from other Asean nations attending the Asean Dengue Conference in Vientiane on Monday, held to mark Asean Dengue Day.

This is the fifth year that Asean countries have taken part in Asean Dengue Day since member countries agreed to hold a regional commemorative day in 2010. The first Asean Dengue Day was held in Indonesia in 2011, in Myanmar in 2012, Vietnam in 2013, and the Philippines in 2014. 

According to Break Dengue, a global partnership of individuals and organisations engaged in the fight against dengue fever, dengue puts 1.3 billion people in Southeast Asia at risk. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)'s data showed that the cost of dengue in Southeast Asia could be as high as US$2.36 billion annually.