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LETTER TO EDITOR |
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Year : 2020 | Volume
: 11
| Issue : 1 | Page : 107 |
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Expected rate of COVID-19 among returning myanmar workers from working in nearby country to their homeland
Won Sriwijitalai1, Uno Tan Tan2, Viroj Wiwanitkit3
1 Private Academic Consultant, Pune, Maharashtra, India 2 Freelance Academic Work, Pune, Maharashtra, India 3 Honoraary Professor, Dr. DY Patil University, Pune, Maharashtra, India; Visiting Professor, Hainan Medical University, China
Date of Submission | 01-Apr-2020 |
Date of Acceptance | 08-May-2020 |
Date of Web Publication | 22-Jul-2020 |
Correspondence Address: Won Sriwijitalai Private Medical Academic Consultant India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_160_20
How to cite this article: Sriwijitalai W, Tan UT, Wiwanitkit V. Expected rate of COVID-19 among returning myanmar workers from working in nearby country to their homeland. Int J Prev Med 2020;11:107 |
How to cite this URL: Sriwijitalai W, Tan UT, Wiwanitkit V. Expected rate of COVID-19 among returning myanmar workers from working in nearby country to their homeland. Int J Prev Med [serial online] 2020 [cited 2021 Apr 17];11:107. Available from: https://www.ijpvmjournal.net/text.asp?2020/11/1/107/290311 |
Dear Editor,
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) already causes a pandemic problem in March 2020. Myanmar is one of the poor developing countries in Indochina that the disease occurs late in the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the local report by Myanmar center of Disease Control, the disease has just been firstly detected in the third week of March 2020. At present (April 1, 2020), there are 15 patients in Myanmar. Of these cases, two cases (13.3%) are imported cases via the land border. The patients are returning Myanmar workers from a nearby country to their homeland. These patients carried disease back and pass the international health screening at border two different border posts (one in Shan state and the other in Kayin/Mon state).
Before the emergence, the nearby country had just used the strict control of the COVID-19 nationwide outbreak by the implementation of some office closure resulting in the mass moving of Myanmar workers from the nearby country to their homeland. Giving the estimated number of Myanmar workers who went back to Myanmar about 30,000 workers, the incidence rate is equal to 0.0067%, and the expected range (95% confidence interval is 0.0017%–0.0267%). This report can imply the requirement of urgent preventive measures for control of disease among foreign workers.
In fact, Myanmar migrant worker is a well-known underprivileged group that usually has a poor assessment of basic public health care services.[1] In fact, many infectious disease outbreaks, such as cholera, have ever occurred among Myanmar migrant workers.[2] Disease outbreak among these people can easily occur and might be very difficult to control. The COVID-19 becomes a big consideration for this region of Indochina.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
References | |  |
1. | Parmar PK, Barina C, Low S, Tun KT, Otterness C, Mhote PP, et al. Migration patterns & their associations with health and human rights in eastern Myanmar after political transition: results of a population-based survey using multistaged household cluster sampling. Confl Health 2019;13:15. doi: 10.1186/s13031-019-0193-1. |
2. | Swaddiwudhipong W, Ngamsaithong C, Peanumlom P, Hannarong S. An outbreak of cholera among migrants living in a Thai-Myanmar border area. J Med Assoc Thai 2008;91:1433-40. |
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