Myanmar’s health crisis threatens neighbours

Myanmar’s civil war is not only devastating lives inside the country – it is spilling across borders, fuelling outbreaks of infectious disease that experts warn could undermine regional health security.

At the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, the waiting rooms are crowded with patients fleeing Myanmar’s collapsing health system. Hospitals there have been bombed, doctors have gone on strike, and millions have been displaced since the military seized power in 2021. Preventable illnesses such as diphtheria and whooping cough are re‑emerging, while malaria and cholera are spreading unchecked.

Nurse Gree Say, who has worked at the clinic for more than a decade, recently encountered her first case of diphtheria in a toddler. “This isn’t something we have seen here before,” she said. The clinic, so close to the border that staff can hear artillery fire, now treats double the number of patients it did before the war.

Thailand, once on track to eradicate malaria, has seen cases rise again as refugees cross into its territory. Doctors warn that drug‑resistant strains of malaria could spread further afield, echoing past patterns that carried resistant parasites from Southeast Asia to Africa. Cholera outbreaks in Myanmar’s lawless conflict zones have already infected Thai citizens, while tuberculosis patients are quarantined in makeshift “TB villages” along the frontier.

Maesot General Hospital has seen its caseload jump by 50 per cent, pushing staff to breaking point. “If we don’t care about Myanmar’s health situation, we might face re‑emerging diseases such as polio,” said deputy director Dr Rojanasak Thongkhamcharoen, noting a confirmed case in northeastern Myanmar last summer.

Epidemiologist Dr Voravit Suwanvanichkij described Myanmar as “an epidemiologic blind spot”, warning that without surveillance, dangerous mutations could go undetected. Cuts to foreign aid have compounded the crisis, leaving border clinics and Thai hospitals to shoulder the burden.

For patients like 21‑year‑old No Zin Thant Zaw, quarantined with dozens of others in a bamboo settlement for TB sufferers, the care available in Thailand is a lifeline. “In Myanmar, I could not get treatment like this,” he said.

With millions uprooted and health services in ruins, Myanmar’s crisis is no longer contained within its borders. Doctors say the region must brace for the consequences of a war that is turning preventable disease into a cross‑border emergency.

-2026-01-07