The American Refugee Committee (ARC) opened a malaria corner point at Kyauktadar Jetty at Shwe Hin Thar ward beside the Parchan River on the Thai-Myanmar border in Kawthaung Township. In this area, migrant workers and merchants frequently cross the border to and from Thailand. With support from the Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI), the ARC malaria project provides free rapid diagnostic malaria testing (RDT) and treatment along with health education to at-risk mobile and migrant populations (MMPs), who are at higher risk of malaria due to the mobile nature of their work. The project recruits and trains migrant liaison officers and malaria volunteers.

Daw Chu Chu Hnin is a migrant liaison officer in the ARC malaria corner point, and she and her team were successful in improving the health seeking behaviour of a migrant family who came from Phaung Seik in Kha Mauk Kyi Township to make a living from woodcutting.

“Before they came to the malaria corner point they were ignorant about malaria and learned of it only through our malaria health education and counselling, which we routinely provide along with malaria testing and treatment”, said Daw Chu Chu Hnin.

She remembers when they first came to the malaria corner point and all four family members were ill with fever, chills and rigor. All four tested positive for malaria, with the father, daughter and son positive for P. falciparum malaria.   

Daw Chu Chu Hnin and the team dispensed artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) and primaquine in the form of directly observed treatment (DOT), and provided malaria education and counselling on its transmission, prevention, testing, treatment, compliance to the medications and the risk of emergence of anti-malarial drug resistance.

Thanks to the ACT they made a prompt recovery. However, the boy again had fever a month after the treatment and his mother brought him back to the clinic. “The mother was crying and was so worried about her son because he had fever again. She was illiterate and was left alone at home with her children while her husband had gone to sea to work on a boat. We reassured her and provided much needed counselling and education”, said Daw Chu Chu Hnin.

“The boy tested positive for malaria again and this time with a mixed infection caused by more than one type of malaria parasite. He was treated with ACT under the guidance of Field Officer U Nay Linn Aung, and fully complied with the treatment. It was wonderful for us to see him regain his health within a few days.”

A month later, with the newly acquired knowledge of malaria and being aware of its life-threatening risk, the mother brought her son to the clinic on her own initiative for a follow-up test. She was overjoyed to learn that her son was free of malaria.

Daw Chu Chu Hnin is very satisfied to witness improved health seeking behaviour among MMPs through the education provided along with malaria treatment, when healthcare providers are also educators.

ARC has been implementing its malaria project with support from the RAI since 2014 and has opened 15 malaria corners at crossings along the Thai-Myanmar border.