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Bkk Post -Rangoon postpones meeting



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Bkk Post -Rangoon postpones meeting on health

Bangkok post - Oct 27, 1999.
THAI-BURMESE TIES

Rangoon postpones meeting on health
Setback for efforts to tackle border ills

Aphaluck Bhatiasevi

Health talks with Rangoon scheduled for Nov 10-11 have been indefinitely
postponed due to Burma's strained relations with Thailand.

Public Health Minister Korn Dabbaransi, who returned from a World Health
Organisation meeting in Rangoon this month, said his Burmese counterpart
wants health problems addressed "internationally and not bilaterally".

The planned meeting in Mae Sai district, Chiang Mai, was to discuss health
problems along the border and that of illegal migrant workers ahead of the
restriction to be imposed on Nov 3.

Concerns were raised over migrant workers living in poor sanitation, in
addition to the increase in the number of children. The main health issues
to be discussed included HIV/Aids, malaria, tuberculosis and elephantiasis.

Like the Thai-Cambodian bilateral health meeting, the meeting with the
Burmese health authorities was expected to bring about informal contacts
between health workers from the two countries aimed at curbing the
borderless diseases.

With the planned meeting scrapped, only discussions on technical assistance
would continue.

Dr Sanguan Nitayarumphong, assistant to the health permanent secretary, said
under the present circumstances, the government would proceed with the
technical assistance, including training of health workers, provision of
medical equipment and medicines.

This, he said, would be a positive move by the two countries.

Thailand would be providing microscopes, ultra sound machines and other
medical and ICU equipment along with medicines to control the spread of
malaria.

Dr Supachai Kunaratanaphruk, deputy health permanent secretary, said it was
necessary for health co-operation to move beyond boundaries otherwise
Thailand would continue to face re-emerging health problems.

To control problems like malaria, it is necessary that the two countries
synchronise their medical efforts to avert drug resistance, he said.

Last year, some 56,939 Burmese patients were treated for malaria in
hospitals in border provinces.

Thailand has spent more than 50 million baht providing medication to Burmese
patients in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kanchanaburi,
Ratchaburi and Chumphon provinces.