KNG NEWS
Fevers and colds have spread throughout Zai Awng (also known as Mung Ga Zup) internally displaced people’s (IDP) camp in Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) controlled territory in eastern Kachin state’s Waingmaw township, according to relief officials from the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC).
The rate of infection in the camp which is home to 2,300 people has increased dramatically over the past week, pastor La Nu told the Kachin News Group (KNG). Last Sunday alone more than 170 camp residents sought treatment at the camp’s two clinics, the pastor said.
Many camp residents have runny noses, coughs and fevers, a camp nurse told KNG.
The camp clinics face serious shortage of much needed medicine, this as the number of ill people in the camp continues to climb Pastor La Nu explained. Most of the medical aid has been supplied by the KIO’s health department, KBC or Chinese churches in Yunnan province, according to pastor La Nu.
Many of the camps in KIO territory where a majority of the estimated 100,000 people displaced by the two-year long Kachin conflict have been taken shelter, are crowded and suffer from serious shortages of medicine and other supplies. The shortages and general poor conditions in the camps stem in part from government restrictions which have prevented the UN and other international aid groups from having regular access to the camps.
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