New Delhi (Mizzima) - Military-ruled Burma has set up medical checkpoints in its international airports to prevent travellers transmitting the deadly swine flu virus into the country.
Burma’s state-run newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, on Sunday and Monday carried photographs of medical staff carrying out checks on travellers in Rangoon and Mandalay International Airports.
Following an outbreak of the deadly swine flu in Mexico and parts of the United States, Burma’s health ministry sources told Mizzima that it is releasing a warning and getting ready to carry out medical checks in the country’s International airports.
Despite the government’s response, Dr. Voravit Suwanvanichkij, a research associate at the Centre for Public Health & Human Rights at the John Hopkins School of Public Health, said preventive measures at the airports alone are insufficient as the disease could still find its way into the country through other entry points.
Movement from and into Burma, which has at least two million of its citizens in neighbouring Thailand as migrant workers, are often not through airports alone. The country also shares porous boundaries with China, India, Bangladesh, Laos and Thailand.
Dr. Voravit, who is based in Thailand, said having checkpoints at international airports cannot effectively assure that no travellers would come in with influenza. It requires a proper public health care system, which can immediately detect an outbreak of disease and prevent it fast.
“Public health care system is almost non-existent in Burma,” said Dr. Voravit, who has visited the country a number of times and has been closely following Burma’s health care system, adding that it could be disastrous if the flu finds its way into the country.
He, however, said the likelihood of swine flu reaching Burma are slim as there is a low level of travel from the countries that has an outbreak to Burma.
“But the flip side is that Burma does not have a health care system, so if there is an outbreak of this sort of thing in Burma, it is likely to be quite extensive and quite late before it can be noticed,” Dr. Voravit said.
Swine flu, technically known as A/H1N1, has symptoms similar to many other diseases and is non-specific. In order to detect them it requires laboratories and diagnosis, which Burma does not have, Dr. Voravit said.
He said, with the level of health among the public being low it would take sometime even before the medical staff could recognize any kind of disease outbreak in Burma.
He said swine flu or influenza is a big concern as it could cost a lot but Burma should also focus on preventable diseases such as Malaria and Tuberculosis that claims thousands of lives every year.
“We can focus on swine flu or influenza but at the end of the day Burma’s health care system can’t even cope with preventable diseases that has been plaguing Burma for decades,” he said.
Though there is low direct contacts with Burma and the countries that have an outbreak of swine flu, it is not impossible for the disease to reach Burma as there have been reports of detection of the disease in Asia.
He said the likelihood of swine flu spreading to other countries in Southeast Asia is much bigger than Burma, because many countries, including Thailand and Singapore, in the region are much more connected to the international community.
“In this regard Burma is a little shielded from that [swine flu]. But on the other hand, once it [swine flu] gets established in this region and if we find this disease entering Asean, then Burma can be vulnerable,” said Dr. Voravit, referring to the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is a member.
“Of course once it [swine flu] gets to Burma, the disease spinning out of control is very big, given that the public health system is marginal,” he added.
According to the United Nations World Health Organisation, on Monday there is an estimated 1,003 cases of H1N1 virus found in 20 countries across the globe.
