Yahoo – AFP,
Kelly Macnamara, 21 Aug 2014
High in the hills of Myanmar's war-torn borderlands, a clutch of new leprosy cases among communities virtually cut off from medical help is a sign that the country's battle with the ancient disease is far from over.
A patient
sits on a bed at the Mawlamyaing Christian Leprosy Hospital
in Mawlamyaing on
March 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)
|
High in the hills of Myanmar's war-torn borderlands, a clutch of new leprosy cases among communities virtually cut off from medical help is a sign that the country's battle with the ancient disease is far from over.
It took six
days by plane, boat, motorcycle, bus -- and an arduous mountain trek -- for a
group of medical workers to treat two leprosy patients in a remote corner of
the country, where conflict and neglect are the legacy of decades of military
rule and even access to basic medicines is a distant dream.
But the
charity-funded medics were also on the lookout for evidence that the disease
had spread.
A patient
has a meal at the Mawlamyaing
Christian Leprosy Hospital in Mawlamyaing
on March 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Ye
Aung Thu)
|
"I
promised him that I would come back for him or I would send someone to pick him
up," said Doctor Saw Hsar Mu Lar, after the May expedition, as he returned
to his hospital in Mawlamyaing, Mon state -- one of only two specialising in
leprosy in Myanmar.
Weeks later
the patient was still waiting to travel as tensions between the Myanmar army
and local rebels closed transportation routes.
Myanmar
reached so-called 'elimination' status for leprosy in 2003 -- meaning less than
one person per 10,000 has the illness.
But there
are still around 3,000 new cases found each year and medical workers warn that
the debilitating disease could be on the rise once more as the country's
creaking healthcare system fails to reach those at risk.
Decades of
civil war in ethnic regions have also left vast swathes of its border areas cut
off from all but the most basic medical help, meaning the disease could be
passing undetected.
"There
can be pocket areas, hidden areas," Saw Hsar Mu Lar told AFP.
"We
have to tell the world that it's not finished yet."
A curable
curse
Leprosy is
one of the world's oldest -- and most feared -- diseases.
The
bacteria affects the skin and deadens the nerves, meaning sufferers are prone
to injure themselves, which results in ulcers and can lead to limb loss.
Symptoms can take as long as 20 years to appear.
It is not
particularly infectious, passing only through close contact over long periods,
and modern medicine is able to cure patients relatively quickly.
A patient
sits in a room at the Mawlamyaing Christian Leprosy Hospital in
Mawlamyaing on
March 13, 2013 (AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)
|
But Myanmar
has one of the world's least developed medical systems, with government funding
consistently among the lowest of any country, even with recent increases under
a post-junta semi-civilian government.
State
health workers are technically in charge of outreach and aid groups are banned
from conducting leprosy awareness campaigns or looking for new patients --
although they can treat people they find through dermatology clinics and during
follow-up field trips.
The
respected local aid group that organised the border expedition asked AFP not to
give specific details of their work fearing that it could jeopardise future
missions.
Saw Hsar Mu
Lar's Mawlamyaing Christian Leprosy Hospital, with its bright, simple wards,
trained staff and plentiful supply of drugs, is a medical haven -- funded
mainly by international donations.
Most of the
patients AFP met were farmers or had turned to begging to make ends meet.
"We
had no medicine at our village even though we had a clinic," said
40-year-old Mu Hai, who had travelled from western Rakhine state for treatment.
The
hospital's matron, Ni Ni Thein, is worried. In 2011 they saw 58 new leprosy
cases, but that rose to 62 in 2012 and 68 last year.
"Now
cases are increasing... the complication rate is increasing," she said,
adding that the age range for the disease had also appeared to have widened,
with one four-year-old treated this year.
The fight
to stop leprosy has been a major international success, with around 16 million
people cured by multi-drug therapy (MDT) medicine in the last two decades.
But experts
warn against complacency.
Myanmar is
one of 18 countries that together account for almost all new cases of the
disease.
A patient
drinks a beverage at the
Mawlamyaing Christian Leprosy Hospital
in Mawlamyaing
on March 13, 2013
(AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)
|
The number
of new cases it finds annually is dwarfed by its populous neighbour India,
where there were some 127,000 new patients identified in 2011 according to
World Health Organisation figures.
But while India
managed an over 50 percent reduction between 2004 and 2011, Myanmar struggled
to reduce its new incidences by 18 percent.
The WHO's
goodwill ambassador on leprosy, Yohei Sasakawa, said stagnation in Myanmar's
new case numbers over several years could indicate authorities are not doing
enough to root out the disease.
One problem
is that the numbers affected seem small compared to other health challenges
like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.
"It is
quite easy to be brought down the priority list," he told AFP during a
recent mission to the country.
'He shall
dwell alone'
Even if
patients are cured, many around the world still fall victim to the stigma that
clings to the disease, ending up living in segregated colonies.
Public
vilification dates back over two thousand years.
The Bible
says of leprosy sufferers: "he is unclean: he shall dwell alone".
A patient
sits in a corridor at the
Mawlamyaing Christian Leprosy Hospital
in Mawlamyaing
on March 13, 2013
(AFP Photo/Ye Aung Thu)
|
"I
lived only with the animals in the jungle and I was frightened. I used to go
into my village under the moonlight and I took rice and fish paste before going
back into the dark forest," the 76-year-old told AFP.
After two
years sleeping in the woods, Roger was found by missionaries and taken to the
Mawlamyaing hospital.
Roger,
whose legs, left hand and eye have been ravaged by the disease, has found
sanctuary there ever since.
Passing the
time reading and leading the church choir, he said he has found happiness
despite a lifetime of travails caused by the illness.
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