A sharp rise in acute diarrhoea cases has been registered in Myanmar’s largest city, state media reported Friday, adding to the strains on a country facing severe flooding and civil war.
State-run newspaper Myanma Alinn said 182 patients were admitted to Yangon’s general hospital with diarrhoea over the past four days, including 93 who tested positive for pathogens causing the condition.
The report did not specify which pathogens were detected or if cases were confirmed as cholera.
However, local news outlet Eleven Media cited Aye Mya Thae Phyu, a lawmaker from Yangon’s Latha township, who reported on Wednesday that patients who tested positive were suffering from cholera.
The military’s information team told reporters on Thursday that a 92-year-old patient had died from the disease.
Aung Lin Aye, deputy medical superintendent at Yangon General Hospital, was quoted in Friday’s paper stating that diarrhoea admissions had increased significantly over recent days, with hospital staff providing treatment focused primarily on preventing further loss of life.
Nanda Win, head of the Yangon Regional Department of Public Health, stated that cases were heavily concentrated in the Chinatown district of downtown Yangon, where street food stalls, bars and restaurants are situated.
He highlighted takeout meals and contaminated water utilised by street vendors as potential origins of the illness, while adding that overall case numbers were starting to fall.
Another state-run publication, Global New Light of Myanmar, said officials instructed street vendors offering high-risk items to halt sales for roughly three days to limit transmission.
Three venues in Chinatown verified the temporary three-day closure to The Associated Press.
Outbreaks of acute diarrhoea present a regular hazard in Yangon during the monsoon period. World Health Organization (WHO) data reveals that in 2024, more than 2,200 individuals were hospitalised with acute watery diarrhoea in Yangon, causing 15 deaths.
The outbreak comes while flooding continues to hit communities in other regions, adding further difficulty for a population dealing with years of ongoing conflict since the army seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.
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