Myitkyina Public Hospital Teeming With Child Patients

With the onset of monsoon in June there has been a sudden increase in the number of child patients in Burma's northern Kachin State's capital Myitkyina leaving no room for fresh admissions in the Myitkyina public hospital, said hospital sources.

The hospital has only one children’s ward and it can admit around 80 child patients, said insiders.

As of now, the children’s ward is full with over 100 child patients mainly of ages under 12. Given the overcrowding, some are being treated on the corridors outside the ward, a hospital blue staff told KNG today. Many teenagers in the town are also suffering from Malaria and symptoms of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF), said hospital sources.

According to sources in the children’s ward, all infants and child patients in the hospital mainly have symptoms of DHF and Malaria --- high continuous fever, dysentery, headache, respiratory and intestinal problems with sore throat, coughing, nausea, vomiting, and solid waste excretion with blood.

Following blood examination results only a few child patients were found to be afflicted with DHF virus and most patients have been given virus-infection status by the hospital, the sources added.

There are also many child patients in the town but they cannot go to the hospital for two reasons--- there is no more place for new patients in the hospital and they lack affordability for treatment, said residents of Myitkyina.

At the hospital, the patients have to pay 4,000 Kyat to 7,000 Kyat per person for blood examination. They also have to buy all injections and medicine, said hospital staff.

Clinics in the town are also full of infants, children and teenager patients, said local people.

Patients found to be suffering from DHF or otherwise in both the government public hospital and outside clinics are mainly treated with Chinese anti-malarial injections like Artemether and Artesunate with anti-biotic tablets and injections, said parents of patients.

According to locals, almost every family in the town has one or more DHF or Malaria patient.

Hospital and residents of Myitkyina said the number of infants; children and teenager patients in the town are much more than that in last year’s rainy season.

As part of the response of the ruling Burmese junta administration to the virus infection, the Myitkyina Town Health Department has been spraying anti-mosquito gas in the houses of patients' suffering from DHF virus, said hospital sources.

KNG