The United Nations' anti-dengue-fever campaign is due to start in Myanmar's cyclone-hit areas Saturday where disease-carrying mosquitoes have become a major concern, according to a local news journal.
Quoting the World Health Organization (WHO), the Voice said the US$700,000 anti-dengue-fever campaign will be launched in11 storm-hit townships in Yangon and Ayeyawaddy divisions.
With the assistance of the WHO and UN Children's Fund and the cooperation of the Myanmar Maternal and Child Welfare Association and the Myanmar Red Cross, the campaign will be introduced in the prioritized townships in Yangon such as Dagon Myothit (North and South) and Hlaingtharya where fresh dengue fever has broken out.
A recent release of the WHO was also quoted as saying that there registered 781 dengue patients in Yangon division and 481 in Ayeyawaddy division as of the end of May.
Meanwhile, the state media reported no outbreak of other contagious and epidemic diseases in the storm-hit areas, saying that a total of 206,039 storm-hit patients had received medical treatment during a month after the cyclone storm.
Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states -- Ayeyawaddy, Yangon, Bago, Mon and Kayin on last May 2-3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage. The storm has killed 77,738 people and left 55,917 missing and 19,359 injured, according to official-released death toll.
The UN estimates a total of 2.4 million people were affected by the cyclone storm and warns that more than 1 million of them still need help, mostly in hardly accessible areas in the Ayeyawaddy delta.
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2008)
