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Background
Myanmar has been affected by the devastating impact of armed conflict and natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, resulting in deadly disease outbreaks and worsening health outcomes.
As a result of conflict and flooding, over 3.5M people are internally displaced in Myanmar1 as of January 2025. The 2025 Humanitarian Need and Response Plan (HNRP) estimates that 35% of the total population of 57M in Myanmar is in need of humanitarian aid. For health, 12.9M people are identified as in need of support with basic health services. Out of these, the majority (85%) are non-displaced people affected by crises, followed by internally displaced populations (15%), returned, resettled and locally integrated IDPs, and non-displaced stateless people (2%). Women, children, older people and people with disabilities, and those with mental health needs are disproportionately affected, facing heightened risks and barriers to accessing care. The Multi Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) conducted in 2024 states that 3% of respondents had a severe or moderate form of disability, while on average 14% had a milder disability.
Most pressing humanitarian health needs as identified in the MSNA are the lack of money to gain access to health services, and insecurity, impeding access to health facilities. Furthermore, Myanmar’s health system is suffering from damage and destruction of health facilities and direct attacks on health centres, health workers, patients and ambulances: ‘between 1 February 2021 and 29 October 2024, 1,543 incidents of violence against, or obstruction of health care’ have been recorded. In these incidents, ‘health facilities have been damaged 3,388 times, 131 health workers have been killed, 135 injured and 40 kidnapped’ 2 . Mental health issues arising from witnessing atrocities, amongst other, have significantly increased, with scarce mental health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS) available throughout the country because of a serious lack of mental health specialists.
Logistical challenges in securing life-saving medical supplies and severe shortages of trained health workers are all contributing to a collapsing health system. ‘Food insecurity in Myanmar has reached unprecedented levels…affecting 15.2 million people’ 3 . The deteriorating food insecurity is resulting in higher levels of malnutrition, leaving people more vulnerable to infectious diseases and negatively impacting their health outcomes. Overcrowded conditions in IDP camps, large-scale displacement, unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and the interruption of preventative measures such as vaccination and vector control interventions, are significantly increasing the occurrence of disease outbreaks:
- An outbreak of Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD)/cholera that started in Yangon in July 2024 expanded to at least 8 states by January 2025, including Mandalay, Mon, Rakhine, and Kayin states. A confirmed cholera outbreak in neighbouring Thailand during December 2024 with cases originating from inside Myanmar, showed the high risk of cross-border spread of the disease. Almost 2.8M doses of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV) were shipped to Myanmar between September and December 2024.
- As per data provided by the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), Myanmar has experienced an almost 300% increase in malaria cases from 2020 to 2023. In areas where PMI partners have been implementing lifesaving malaria services, cases sharply increased by 718% from 2020 to November 2024. In this same period, malaria cases in children under five years increased fourfold, whilst cases in pregnant women increased fivefold. Interruption of vector control interventions to minimise the mosquito population is one of the main reasons for the worrying surge in malaria cases. Partners report chronic shortages of malaria supplies at health facility level, impeding diagnostics and treatment of cases. In addition, long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) are reportedly the most difficult items to transport, with many communities currently not having access to this effective protection measure against malaria and other vector-borne diseases. Furthermore, prevention and treatment of malaria is challenged by a lack of trained health workers and high turnover of malaria volunteers.
- Vaccination coverage for childhood illnesses is persistently low, with an estimated 1.5 million children under-five having missed basic vaccinations since 2018, posing a serious threat to the risk of measles and diphtheria outbreaks and possible reemergence of polio.