Health Volunteers in Myanmar's Karenni (Kayah) State Rely on Borrowed Medicine Amid Severe Malaria Outbreak

Community health volunteers in eastern Demoso Township, Karenni (Kayah) State, are struggling to contain a widespread malaria outbreak amid critical shortages of anti-malarial medication and severe logistical delays. Local healthcare workers reported that while some humanitarian organizations have donated anti-malarial supplies, blockaded roads and challenging terrain have crippled supply chains. Consequently, volunteers must frequently borrow medicine from neighboring villages to keep patients alive. “To reach the eastern side, medicines must be transported from the western part of the township. Due to severe transportation barriers, a delivery that should normally take a week now takes nearly a month,” a local health volunteer explained. “When our village runs out, we have to borrow stocks from nearby communities and repay them once our delayed supplies finally arrive. That is the only way we can manage.” According to health volunteers, malaria cases began spiking in June. Over the past month alone, at least 50 residents presented with malaria-like symptoms, with 13 testing positive after rapid diagnostic evaluations. The outbreak has increasingly hit both permanent villages and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps scattered across eastern Demoso Township— an area heavily affected by ongoing conflict. A local village official stressed that beyond medicine, there is an urgent and unmet need for mosquito nets to halt the transmission of the mosquito-borne disease. “People don’t have mosquito nets, and they really need them. No one comes to distribute mosquito nets here,” he said. “If people could sleep under mosquito nets, it would help prevent malaria, even if they don’t go out to work,” he continued. The health volunteer added that most patients who tested positive for malaria had traveled or worked in forested and mountainous areas. “Displaced families simply do not have mosquito nets, and the need is desperate. No aid agencies have come to distribute them here yet,” the official said. “We have submitted formal requests to the relevant humanitarian authorities, but we have yet to receive a response. Sleeping under nets is the most critical preventive shield we have right now, especially for those who are not yet infected.” The health volunteer noted that the majority of those testing positive are individuals who travel to forested areas or mountainous terrain for agricultural work. “The transmission is primarily happening in the forests and fields. Farmers and laborers travel long distances to work, get bitten by infected mosquitoes, and bring the disease back to the communities,” the volunteer added. Demographic data provided by the healthcare team shows that the most affected group consists of adults aged between 20 and 60, with men disproportionately outnumbering women due to the nature of outdoor work.