Social Aspects on Health

The standard of health and healthcare services in remote rural areas is very low. The main reason is that proper health and healthcare services are not available there. There are no healthcare centers, let alone hospitals, in most of the rural areas. Patients with serious illnesses have no choice but to go to the nearest town for medical treatment. The situation, thus, forces rural people to depend on some quacks or bogus health workers for medical treatment when they are ill. These so-called health workers have a little knowledge and skill in medicine. ‘A little knowledge is dangerous’ as the saying goes. It is very true with healthcare. It is truer with the situations in rural areas where there are a lot of witch doctors who cash in on the situation and make a lot of money at the expense of lives of patients. And the majority of people themselves in the area are uneducated, thus, have little knowledge in healthcare. There is a hospital in every town. And people are entitled to free medical treatment from public hospitals.

The problem is that there are few medicines in hospitals for only a few medicines are supplied to the hospitals in remote towns. In-patients have to buy medicines from outside drug stores while taking treatment from the hospital regardless of whether they can afford to pay for the medicines or not. The few, who can afford expensive special medical treatment from private clinics or hospitals, especially in big towns can survive any curable and treatable diseases or escape unnecessary death. But how can the poor, the majority, survive the curable and treatable diseases or illnesses, the treatment of which demands the amount of money unaffordable to them?

The second problem is shortages of health staff. There are not enough health-workers, nurses and doctors at the hospitals in remote small towns.

The third problem is that there are not enough medical facilities or equipment at hospitals, particularly, in remote towns. Patients with serious illnesses or wound have to rush to a city or big town where modern medical facilities are available at hospitals. Sadly, as mentioned above, the cost of taking medical treatments either in government hospitals or private clinics or hospitals is hardly affordable to the poor.

One can sense that many people have died more due to lack of access to proper healthcare services rather than of the diseases they suffered from. Diseases like malaria, dengue, tuberculosis, typhoid, diarrhea, and malnutrition are common in Kayah State. Malaria, in particular, is widespread everywhere in the region. It has killed many people. Less would have died if they had had access to proper medical treatment or healthcare services.