In Sittwe, the number of preventable deaths grows by the day. Fiona MacGregor reports from the Te Chaung IDP camp.
Sunday: Mahmoud Thrakis, 5, died without medical care after suffering post-appendix operation complications.
Monday: Rusmai Ga, 1, died without medical care after contracting an infection and developing a fever.
Tuesday: Mahmad Farouk, 40, father of four, died without medical care from symptoms related to diabetes.
Three fewer people for enumerators to count when they arrived in the Thaechaung IDP camp on April 1 for the first census in Myanmar in 30 years. In the event, most people living in the camp on the outskirts of state capital Sittwe did not have their details recorded.
As the enumerators passed from house to house, refusing to collect information from anyone who identified themselves as being Rohingya, a humanitarian disaster was unfolding just inside the walls.
Speaking the day after his granddaughter Rusmai Ga died on March 31, Mahmoud Sayad explained the human tragedy now unfolding amid the event. He had taken the baby to Dapaing Hospital, a facility within the camp that had been overseen by INGOs until they were evacuated from the area last week following violent attacks, “but there was no one there”.
The full article continues at http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/10062-death-tally-mounts-in-absence-of-medical-care.html on the Myanmar Times’ website.