To help her tend the seven COVID-19 patients at Cikha hospital, day and night, chief nurse Lun Za En has a lab technician and a pharmacist's assistant."We don't have enough oxygen, enough medical equipment, enough electricity, enough doctors or enough ambulances," Lun Za En, 45, told Reuters from the town of just over 10,000."We are operating with three staff instead of 11.
Thirteen medics have been killed, according to World Health Organisation data that shows 179 attacks on health workers, facilities and transport - nearly half of all such attacks recorded worldwide this year, said WHO Myanmar representative Stephan Paul Jost. "Then again, we don't receive new patients any more as COVID test centres don't have staff to test," said the worker, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution.
Now, a health system in crisis is raising concerns about the likely impact on the country from the wave of infections with variants that is sweeping through India, Thailand and other neighbours. Stay-at-home orders have now been declared in parts of Chin state, where Cikha is located, and neighbouring Sagaing region.
Lun Za En said her hospital was doing the best it could with nebulisers - machines that turn liquid to mist - to relieve breathlessness. Some patients have oxygen concentrators, but they only work for the two hours a day that the town gets electricity."The junta will not take care of our patients," she said.
Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)