In recent weeks, Myanmar’s security forces have stepped up their crackdown on doctors opposing the military junta that seized power 14 months ago. Doctors have spearheaded a nationwide civil disobedience movement that has crippled the economy, and the regime has targeted health workers from the start.
Security forces have arrested doctors in their homes and hospitals, revoked the licenses of prominent doctors, searched hospitals for wounded resistance fighters and threatened to close health facilities that employ doctors who resist the regime.
The intimidation and arrest of doctors who oppose the regime comes as the country faces an ongoing health crisis due to a severe shortage of doctors, a chronic lack of resources and the closure of many hospitals and clinics.
Nearly one million children do not receive routine vaccinations, leaving them vulnerable to measles and other diseases, and nearly 5 million children lack vitamin A supplements, putting them at risk for infections and blindness, UNICEF said.
Across the country, barely 40 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and many patients are left without routine care. Necessary operations are difficult to schedule.
Doctors say health care in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, has improved somewhat in recent months and many doctors are back at work. But anti-regime doctors estimate that hundreds of people are still dying each week from the collapse of the health care system.
