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Mae Tao: A Lifeline on the Border

By Peter Biro
Mae Sot, Thailand - 08 Jun 2010 -  

Lifeline on the border

  • The Mae Tao clinic, on the outskirts of the town of Mae Sot in northeastern Thailand, is the only source of medical care for thousands of Burmese along the volatile Thailand-Myanmar border. Supported by the International Rescue Committee through its SHIELD program, the clinic treats around 150,000 patients, half of them from within Myanmar, every year. Patients, unable to afford health care elsewhere, are offered a wide range of free services, including an emergency room, 200 hospital beds, surgical, maternity, and eye-care wards, a laboratory and a blood bank. At the clinic’s prosthetics workshop, technicians make and fit artificial limbs, mostly for patients who have stepped on one of the many landmines that litter the border area.
  • <p>Nyine Tun arrived in the clinic shaking with fever from malaria. She had contracted the often fatal disease two weeks before arriving at Mae Tao from a village deep in eastern Myanmar&rsquo;s interior. &ldquo;I had a very high fever for many days,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I went to the clinic at home, but they wouldn&rsquo;t accept me because I couldn&rsquo;t afford the medicines.&rdquo;</p>
  • <p>Khin That, 25, suffers from high fever and convulsions caused by malaria. &ldquo;A lot of patients live in mosquito-infested forest areas without access to mosquito nets or anti-malarial medicines,&rdquo; says Saw Aung Than Wai, a senior health worker at Mae Tao. &ldquo;It is probably the number one killer on the border.&rdquo;</p>
  • <p>Thirty-six-year old Maung Oo, who is yet to be diagnosed, is just one hundreds of Burmese who come to the clinic to receive treatment every day. Some have fled ethnic conflict and economic stagnation inside Myanmar, also known as Burma&mdash;many are members of the Karen ethnic group&mdash;while others are living in Thailand as migrant workers.</p>
  • <p>While many patients have to travel for days on poor roads to make it to Mae Tao, for many, it&rsquo;s the only way to receive free healthcare. When U Mya Aye contracted tuberculosis, it not only threatened his already fragile health, but the economy of his entire family. Unable to pay for his treatment and in serious financial debt after costly chest X-rays, the 53-year-old Burmese traveled across potholed dirt roads on the back of a truck to make it to the clinic. &ldquo;It was not easy to get here, but it saved me,&rdquo; he says.</p>
  • <p>Dr. Aya Tanabe, a volunteer from Japan, and Eh Ta Mwee, a senior medic, perform an amputation in Mae Tao&rsquo;s surgery ward. The Myanmar border area is littered with landmines, maiming and killing hundreds of people every year. At Mae Tao&rsquo;s prosthetics clinic, landmine victims and amputees receive free surgical and post-operative care, artificial limbs and rehabilitation.</p>
  • <p>Over 80 percent of all patients who receive prostheses at Mae Tao are landmine victims. All patients are very poor and cannot afford artificial limbs in Myanmar.</p>
  • Mae Tao is also training technicians, all of them landmine survivors, in the construction of prosthetics. Hundreds of Burmese landmine amputees have been fitted with prosthetic limbs and undergone rehabilitation since the prosthetics clinic opened in 2001.
  • Up to a dozen poor Burmese women a day give birth safely at the clinic's maternity unit. According to studies conducted by organizations affiliated with Mae Tao, the infant mortality rate in eastern Myanmar is 91 deaths for every 1,000 births, compared to an average rate of 76 for the rest of the country and only 18 in Thailand. At Mae Tao, all newborns are provided with birth certificates -- a crucial document in order to claim Burmese nationality in the future.
  • Myanmar has the fourth highest child mortality rate in the world with up to 150,000 children under the age of five years dying every year, according to the United Nations. At Mae Tao, children receive treatments ranging from acute surgery, immunization, de-worming and supplementary feeding.
  • In isolated rural areas, disease and malnutrition are endemic. This underfed and anemic boy is treated with a blood transfusion. “He is recovering fast,” says senior health worker Saw Aung Than Wai.
Launch Slideshow

The Mae Tao clinic, on the outskirts of the town of Mae Sot in northeastern Thailand, is the only source of medical care for thousands of Burmese along the volatile Thailand-Myanmar border.

Photos by Peter Biro/The IRC.

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The Mae Tao clinic, on the outskirts of the town of Mae Sot in northeastern Thailand, is the only source of medical care for thousands of Burmese along the volatile Thailand-Myanmar border.  Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC

[[SLIDESHOW]]

STORY AT A GLANCE

 

When U Mya Aye was diagnosed with tuberculosis, it not only threatened his already fragile health, but the survival of his family. Unable to pay for treatment and in debt after paying for costly chest X-rays, the 53-year-old Burmese farmer was told about the Mae Tao Clinic. Located across the border in Thailand, the International Rescue Committee-supported clinic provides free health care to tens of thousands of Burmese refugees and migrants each year.

After two days traversing potholed dirt roads in the back of a truck while severely weakened and coughing blood into his handkerchief, U Mya Aye arrived at the clinic.
 
“It was not easy to get here, but it saved my life,” U Mya Aye says as he recovers in a ward for patients with infectious diseases. “I’m slowly healing and feeling better.”

Outside the ward, the clinic’s waiting room is filled to capacity. Ragged-looking people line the corridors and squat on the floors. The air is filled with the spicy aroma of chewed betel and smoke from local “cheroot” cigars.

U Mya Aye is just one hundreds of Burmese who come to the clinic daily to receive treatment. Some have fled ethnic conflict and economic stagnation inside Myanmar, also known as Burma—many are members of the Karen ethnic group—while others are living in Thailand as migrant workers.

Unable to pay for treatment for tuberculosis, Burmese farmer U Mya Aye travelled across potholed dirt roads on the back of a truck to make it to the clinic. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC

Unable to pay for his treatment for tuberculosis, Burmese farmer U Mya Aye travelled across potholed dirt roads on the back of a truck to make it to the clinic. Photo: Peter Biro/The IRC

Over half a million internally displaced Burmese live on the border with Thailand along with an estimated two million Burmese who live in the border region. Most lack health care and education, work menial jobs and live in constant fear of arrest and deportation.

“To pay for my lab tests and X-rays in Myanmar, I had to borrow money from my extended family and friends,” U Mya Aye says. “I owed 200,000 kyat ($200) before I was even treated.”

The Mae Tao clinic, located in the border town of Mae Sot, treats some 150,000 patients a year, half from Myanmar. It is staffed by volunteers and the occasional Western-trained physician who can spend a month or so in residence. The clinic includes an emergency room, 200 hospital beds, surgical, maternity, and eye-care wards, a laboratory and a blood bank. There is even a prosthetics workshop which makes and fits artificial limbs for patients who have stepped on one of the many landmines that litter the border area.

The IRC has been providing the Mae Tao clinic with financial and organizational support since 2005 through SHIELD, a project that aims to improve access to primary health care and education for Burmese refugees and migrants.

Saw Aung Than Wai, a senior health worker for the Mae Tao clinic, says most of the diseases treated at the clinic are preventable and treatable if the patients only had access to proper medical care in Myanmar. Children are especially vulnerable. According to studies conducted by organizations affiliated with the clinic, the infant mortality rate in eastern Myanmar is 91 deaths for every 1,000 births, compared to an average rate of 76 for the rest of the country and only 18 in Thailand.

For adults and children alike, the most common affliction treated at the clinic is malaria.

“A lot of patients live in mosquito-infested forest areas without access to mosquito nets or anti-malarial medicines,” Saw Aung Than Wai says. “It is probably the number one killer on the border.”
 

Nyine Tun lies in a hospital bed hooked up to a drip bottle with saline solution. The frail 34-year old woman says that she contracted malaria two weeks before arriving at Mae Tao from a village deep in the eastern Myanmar’s interior.

“I had a very high fever for days,” she says. “I went to a clinic in my village but they wouldn’t treat me because I couldn’t afford the medicines.”

Nyine Tun ended up going to a traditional healer who prescribed herbs as treatment.

“They didn’t help,” she explains. “But poor people always treat themselves with herbs.”

Nyine Tun finally decided to travel to Mae Tao, hitching a ride on the back of a truck. During the final leg of her journey, she was ferried across the fast-running Moei River, which marks the border, on an inner tube.

While patients like Nyine Tun describe making long arduous journeys to get to Mae Tao, it is the only way many of them will ever receive any form of health care.

“This clinic is truly saving lives,” says Frank Brewster, a Canadian and one of the clinic’s volunteering foreign physicians.