A Deadly Syndemic in Myanmar: The Coup, the Pandemic, and Challenges for Medical Humanitarian Response and Public Health System Recovery

A Deadly Syndemic in Myanmar: The Coup, the Pandemic, and Challenges for Medical Humanitarian Response and Public Health System Recovery

Thursday, May 12, 2022
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
(Pacific)

Via Zoom Webinar.

Speaker: 
  • Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw,
  • Nay Lin Tun

Register: https://bit.ly/3Ncvj7B

AHPP “Aligning incentives” series final webinar: May 12th 6pm PDT, May 13th 9am in Hong Kong and Singapore

How has Myanmar’s health system dealt with the devastation caused by the coup and the pandemic, and what are the current opportunities and challenges for response and recovery? In this panel of two experts, Dr. Thin Zaw will first discuss how Myanmar’s health system and health workforce are endeavoring to respond to the syndemic crisis, a deadly combination of the global pandemic, the military coup, and post-coup civil conflicts. She will also discuss how stakeholders are working together to try to mitigate the crisis, and how a federal health system could be built up to align incentives for effective collaboration among ethnic health organizations. Second, Dr. Tun will provide a grassroots medical humanitarian perspective on what is happening in Myanmar. He will present results of a mixed-methods survey conducted in non-military-controlled areas from October to December 2021, discussing how Myanmar professionals including healthcare workers are spearheading the Civil Disobedience Movement, helping internally displaced people, and trying to address the healthcare needs of populations in conflict areas.

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Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw 051222
Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw (MBBS, MPP, PhD), who is a Burmese national, is a medical doctor, epidemiologist and health systems researcher currently working as a Lecturer in the School of Public Health in the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Science in Exile initiative, which brings together at-risk, displaced and refugee scientists along with like-minded organizations who work together to strengthen systems that support, protect and integrate such affected scientists. Phyu Phyu’s research interests are equity, health and education policies, Southeast Asia health systems and policies, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, poverty eradication, and human rights issues. Dr. Thin Zaw is also a public health and policy consultant giving technical advice to think tanks and non-governmental organizations.

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Nay Lin Tun 051222
Nay-Lin Tun (MD, MPP) is a medical doctor by training, and recently earned a Master in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore. He works as a program manager for a local organization that focuses on social cohesion and pluralism among diverse communities. In this role, he manages programs that help vulnerable communities in remote, hard-to-reach, and conflict-affected areas of Myanmar to get access to health services and provide financial assistance to injured civilians who need emergency referrals to private hospitals. Dr. Tun experienced a turning point in his career in 2017 when he went to the conflict-riven northern Rakhine areas. Witnessing people’s suffering and discrimination firsthand compelled him to initiate mobile health clinics and speak out in the media about health care challenges. On a voluntary basis, he is coordinating international donations and grants to field medical teams in conflict-affected areas of the country.