The government public hospital in Lashio town in Burma's northeast Shan State is spilling over with child patients under the age of six suffering from Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF), said local residents.
 
There are at the moment about 100 children suffering from dengue in the children’s ward of the hospital – in corridors and platforms outside the hospital rooms, sources said.
 
The fresh DHF affliction is mainly among children under the age of six. The disease has been on the rise since the middle of June in Lashio.
 
All the child patients reveal common symptoms like swelling faces and abdomen besides having unabated high fever, dysentery, headache, respiratory and intestinal problems with sore throat, coughing, nausea, vomiting, and solid waste excretion with blood, a hospital source said.
 
Given the number of afflicted the demand for blood donation has also increased in the hospital for child DHF patients. Residents have been asked by the hospital to provide blood, said residents of Lashio.
 
A dengue patient needs between a week or two to recover.  The patients are mainly being treated with anti-biotic injections in Lashio hospital, said insiders.
 
Yesterday (July 21), the Burmese ruling junta's Lashio Administrative Office or Town Peace and Development Council (Ma-Ya-Ka) officials made the rounds of the entire town and warned about dengue through loud speakers, said residents.
 
The Ma-Ya-Ka instructed each house in the town to clear bushes, avoid water accumulation in jugs or containers and clean the grounds in the compound of houses, added residents.
 
The authorities also warned householders that whoever disobeys what was being said in the announcement would be punished, said residents.
 
A resident in Lashio told KNG today, that the junta has not arranged for anti-mosquito spray in Lashio despite the hospital being full of child DHF patients. All they have done is warn the public of the disease.