軍の目盗んでコロナ患者を治療　ミャンマーの医療従事者

【カヤＡＦＰ＝時事】ミャンマー東部カヤ州では、看護師が軍事政権の目を逃れて仮設の診療所を運営し、検問所で見つからないようにひそかに持ち込んだ薬で新型コロナウイルスの感染者や民主派の戦闘員の治療を行っている。（写真はミャンマー東部カヤ州で、新型コロナウイルスの感染者を治療する医療従事者）
　現地の監視団体によると、看護師たちは荷物をまとめ、いつでも逃げられるようにしている。昨年２月の国軍のクーデターと、１３００人以上が死亡した弾圧に対する不服従運動では、医療従事者はいつしか最前線に立たされるようになっていた。
　人権団体の報告によれば、政府系機関でのストライキにより多くの病院で職員が職場を離れ、抗議活動を続ける医療従事者は国軍に逮捕・殺害された。
　エイ・ナインさん（仮名）は、クーデター直後に公立病院を辞め、昨年６月、軍事政権と反クーデター武装組織との衝突が相次ぐカヤ州でボランティアを始めた。
　「戦闘が始まると、私たちは森に逃げて隠れなければなりません」。デモソ近郊の仮設診療所でエイ・ナインさんはＡＦＰに語った。戦闘で使われなくなった学校を利用している。
　患者のほとんどは避難民と、民主派が創設した独自部隊「国民防衛隊（ＰＤＦ）」のメンバーだ。
　「この地域には医師や医療従事者が少なく、村で必要とされていると聞きました」とエイ・ナインさんは言う。「だから、ここに来ることにしたのです。それから医薬品を手に入れるために力を尽くしました」
　新型ウイルスの検査で陽性反応が出た人には、解熱剤のパラセタモールやビタミン剤を処方している。手元にある薬剤はこれだけだ。
　国際人権団体ヒューマン・ライツ・ウオッチの最近の報告によると、軍事政権への反発が強い地域では、軍が人道支援や医療物資の輸送を妨害している。
　「検問を通る際に全員、軍に調べられ、薬を持っているのが見つかれば逮捕されます」と、同じ仮設診療所で働いている看護師のラ・アウンさん（仮名）は話した。
　「私たちも、まさに命懸けです」 【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/01/05-10:28）

A handful of Myanmar nurses hiding from the junta have been running makeshift clinics to treat Covid patients and resistance fighters with medicine smuggled past military checkpoints.
With bags packed, they are always ready to flee as healthcare workers find themselves at the forefront of a civil disobedience movement against the February coup and a crackdown on dissent that has killed more than 1,300, according to a local monitoring group.
A boycott of government institutions has left many hospitals without staff and the junta has arrested and killed scores of protesting health workers, rights groups say.
Aye Naing -- not her real name -- left her job in a public hospital soon after the coup and in June began volunteering in Kayah state in Myanmar's east, where the military and anti-coup fighters have clashed repeatedly.
When the fighting starts, we have to run and hide in the jungle, she told AFP at a clinic housed at a school abandoned because of fighting near the town of Demoso.
After a devastating Covid wave in June and July -- where new daily cases peaked at 40,000 -- the junta has said new infections are down to around 150 per day, and that the Omicron variant is yet to appear in Myanmar.
But with the struggling health system in shambles, limited testing is being done.
In Kayah around 85,000 people have been displaced by the violence, according to the UN's refugee agency, with many crowded into camps where infections spread easily.
Most of Aye Naing's patients are displaced families, she said, as well as fighters from local People's Defense Force (PDF) groups -- militias that have sprung up across the country to fight the junta.
I was told there weren't many doctors and medical workers in this area, and that villagers were asking for them, she said.
So, I made the decision to come, and tried to get hold of some medical supplies.
At one village, her team conducts swab tests through a small tear in a sheet of plastic stretched over a bamboo frame.
Those who test positive are prescribed paracetamol or vitamins, the only medicine on offer.
Donated oxygen must be used sparingly: refilling canisters involves a trip to the closest large town, passing junta checkpoints along the way.
After each shift, Aye Naing removes her plastic protective suit and disinfects it, along with her mask, ready for the next one.
- Blocking medicine -
In an empty classroom, an infected PDF fighter sits out his quarantine strumming a guitar.
In areas where resistance to its rule is strong, the military has blocked the delivery of humanitarian aid and medical supplies, according to a recent Human Rights Watch report.
Burmese military check everyone at their gates and arrest people they find carrying medicines, said Hla Aung, another nurse working at the clinic whose name has been changed to protect her identity.
It's like we are risking our lives.
In the six months following the coup, 190 health workers were arrested and 25 killed, according to a report by Insecurity Insight, Physicians for Human Rights, and Johns Hopkins University.
But Aye Naing said she will keep going.
My parents' support keeps me strong, she said.
My father has sent as much medicine as he can.