Malaria remains widespread in Mon state. The World Health Organization is concerned about diarrhea, malaria and dengue after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma 's commercial city Rangoon and Irrawaddy delta affecting over 2.4 million people.
International Organization for Migrants (IOM) based in Mon state said malaria in the region is increasing as more and more migrants from upper Burma continue to migrate to Mon state, southern Burma .
Almost half of the patients who came for tests were found to be afflicted by malaria, said a health worker for IOM who asked not to be named saying her organization has to work with the government.
IOM started operations in Mon state at the end of 2006 and currently works in six townships of Moulmein (Mawlamyine), Kyaikmayaw, Beelin, Mudon, Thanpyuzayart and Ye.
Nearly half of all deaths from malaria in Asia occur in Burma according to the Briarpatch Maganize early this month.
The military regime is still hardly allowing all of aid workers to enter the country afraid of aid workers witnessing the real situation of its people suffering in the country, said Burmese analysts.
The state run media recently claimed that the health situation in Burma was normal and malaria in country has decreased in recent years.
In Burma thousands of people are killed by malaria annually and at least 6.33 percent are suffering from malaria in Mon State , said a doctor in the Mon State , southern Burma .
"Malaria affliction remains the same, especially in Burma 's remote areas. It is has not decreased as the government propaganda would have one believe and it is unlikely to decrease especially in the remote areas," he said.
"Even in a village clinic, I have an average of three malaria patients everyday. They are middle aged and include both men and women who work in farms and rubber plantations," he added.
In recent years, the military regime has increased restrictions to many aid organizations such as the Red Cross, Medicines Sans Frontiers and UN Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In 2006 the French section of MSF withdrew from the country.
Burma spends two to three per cent of its budget on health and 40 per cent on its armed forces. Health expenditures in Burma are among the lowest globally according to a recent report by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
