Medics Turned Away in Myanmar

It’s easy to get numb to the facts and figures coming out of Myanmar, but we need to continue to pray for the situation. Here’s a current report from Mission Network News:

Myanmar has booted a team of medics, citing no need for their services. Aid agencies have warned of the threat of an outbreak of disease that could decimate Nargis survivors.

That concern has increased as the government has closed refugee camps and ordered people back to their villages. As more people return to rebuild their shattered lives, aid workers are trying to implement village-level systems that can offer rudimentary care and stave off the potential for epidemic outbreaks.

Such a shift in the rebuilding of the medical infrastructure means villagers will have to rely more heavily on mobile clinics and local workers.

International Aid’s Milton Amayun says, “We have shipped six clinics to a partner that works within Myanmar, especially in the disaster area. They also work with displaced people along the Thai border.”

The mobile clinics contain everything you would find in a doctor’s office. It is a good start because the basics are there, although in finite supply. Getting replacement supplies will be tricky. Amayun says the issue is complicated by communications isolation. “We don’t have internet in Myanmar. Cell phones are confiscated before you go into the disaster areas.”

Read more here and be sure to pray.

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