“Mass medical supplies frominternational health organizations urgently needed in Rakhine State”

NarinjaraNews, February 9,2023

In The Khon village on Myay Ngu island in RakhineState's Pauktaw Township, some villagers including children, are suffering from skin diseases due tounclean drinking water. But they haveno opportunity to receive proper medical treatment.

“The main reason why skin diseases are common, is because ofunclean water. Many people, includingchildren suffer from these diseases. The lesions on their bodiesitch. Because they are poor,they cannot afford medical treatment”, a village elder said.

Currently, the Arakan Army (AA) and the Military Councilmaintain a temporary ceasefire in RakhineState, but city-based government health workers do not want to provide healthcare in

rural areas, due to security concerns. AA also cannotprovide healthcare in every village; hence

many villagers have no access to medical treatment.

“As a consequence of the armed conflicts, the publichealthcare system is non-existent in mannyparts of Rakhine State. In our State, which is already poor and only hasgroggy health services, the situation is now worse than ever”,a local “Good Samaritan” told Narinjara.

Therefore it is essential that the vacuums in the healthcaresector should be filled by the interventionof the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Committee of the

Red Cross (ICRC) as well as the United Nations (UN), headded.

The Khon village administrator commented. “Scabies-like skindiseases are common in the village. Somehave fluid oozing from their lesions. The main cause is uncleanwater. Due to destitution,wells cannot be dug properly. When the villagers get sick, they don’t have enough money for treatment. If theinternational community would give us help, we would be very

happy.”

The Khon is a large fishing village with about 400households and a population of about 1900.

In October last year, all the ponds in the village wereflooded with seawater due to a storm. So thatresulted in salty water from artesian wells around the village. Relying on suchsaline water for drinking andgeneral use has adversely affected the health of the villagers.

The village administrator commented “The water is quitesalty. This year outbreaks of skindisease have increased more than normal, because of unclean water. Students and children are now gettingscabies. In the past, children did not experience that. Now bothchildren and adults have been suffering from skin diseases for 2 or 3 months.”

A 25-year-old woman from the village said that some girlsdon’t even dare to goout of their

homes, due to the bad condition of their skin and manyrashes.

“In the early stages, scabies-likespots appear on the skin. Then the rashes emerge. The rashes accumulate inone place on the skin, and thenspread quickly. I went to a clinic in Sittwe, and they gave me medicine and ointment, but it didn’t help. The occurrence ofsuch skin diseases is closely linkedto unclean water,” she said.

Some people suffering from skin diseases have been buyingand using ointments from the city,

and a few of them are getting better, but the condition ofmany others is not improving.