Infant deaths remain due to a shortage of healthcare access in some IDP camps in Southern Shan State, according to the Pa-O Youth Organization.
Among the displaced people from the areas of Hsihseng, Hopong, Lwan Lin, Pinlaung, and Nyaung Shwe in southern Shan State where fighting has been going on for more than 4 months, pregnant women were also included and those pregnant women did not have access to health care, an official from the Pa-O Youth Organization told MPA.
“As for the local displaced people, they are facing difficulties in accessing the health care. And it is difficult to purchase medicine. Only little medical care was accessed in some convenient places, but most of them were hard to access medical treatment,” he said.
It is very difficult for the residents of the above areas to get health care in the current period, and even under normal conditions, there are no clinics and hospitals. Even if there was a hospital and clinic, they faced situations such as the lack of health workers, the residents said.
A resident of Hsihseng Township said, “Displaced people constantly need food, and health care in the current period.”
A total of 13 children under the age of 18 were killed during the fighting in Southern Shan State for more than four months (18 weeks), according to the statistics released by the Pa-O Youth Organization.
Among them, 11 children, ranging in age from a month old to 15 years old, were killed by the junta’s shelling, airstrikes, and due to lack of access to health care. The rest 2 children aged 14 and 16 were arrested and killed by armed forces, according to the statement of the Pa-O Youth Organization.
Last April, a pregnant mother, who often flees war, died after giving birth to quadruplets and her two newborn babies also died in Lanku village, Leiktho Township, northern Thandaung, Kayin State.