Thai-Burma Border

Table of Contents   Introduction Thai-Burma Border Scaling Up Improving Access China-Burma Border India-Burma Border Advocacy Next Steps

The Thai-Burma border is often described as an "epicenter" of drug resistant malaria. Malaria prevalence (the proportion of the population with the disease at any time) among IDPs in eastern Burma is up to twenty times higher than right across the border in Thailand.

Malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in eastern Burma, accounting for 23% of medical cases, and 42% of deaths, with a disproportionate impact on young children. Over 20% of children will die before their fifth birthday, nearly half from malaria.

KDHW Responds to the Malaria Crisis:

In 2003 indigenous health workers of the Karen Department of Health and Welfare (KDHW) initiated, with technical assistance from GHAP, a pilot malaria control program in conflict affected areas of eastern Burma. The program was based on the three primary principles of WHO's Roll Back Malaria Initiative: Early Diagnosis and Treatment, Vector Control, and Education. Because of extensive drug resistance the program used an artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) recommended by the regional Thai-Burma Border Guidelines. Vector Control is achieved by distributing Long-Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLITNs) to each household. The program enlisted support from the local population by establishing Malaria Committees in each village, which assist with education and monitoring of LLITN use. In the first two years of the Pilot Malaria Control Program, the burden of malaria (as measured by prevalence) decreased by more than 90%.

The program provides a sustainable and affordable solution to malaria control because the substantial reduction in transmission results in savings that can be translated into further expansion, or shifted to alternative health promotion activities. Due to the dramatic ability to save lives, GHAP and local ethnic minority health organizations intend to expand this unique malaria intervention as rapidly as possible.

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