On midday of 14 May 2023, an extremely severe Cyclone Mocha crossed the western coast of Myanmar near Sittwe in Rakhine state with wind speed of between 190 to 250 km per hour, making it as one of the strongest cyclones to hit Myanmar. This cyclone brought heavy rains, floodings, and winds across the coast of Rakhine state and headed northeast to Chin, Magway, Sagaing and Kachin.
According to Cyclone Mocha Flash Appeal 2023, the cyclone and flooding that followed hit the area of high preexisting vulnerability, with large numbers of people displaced, returned, stateless and deeply affected by the crisis. Health facilities in cyclone affected areas including those from displaced camps, particularly those in capital of Rakhine state, were damaged, disrupting both the health service delivery and medicine supply chain. Health services in Rakhine state were able to resume only 3 days after the cyclone.
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Support oral diabetes medication to the patient. Photo credit: WHO Myanmar.
While the health sector was scaling up the emergency response to provide care to the most vulnerable, there were increased needs in the following days for medicines and supplies for essential health service provision. Drugs for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) emerged as one of the most critical needs, since people living with NCDs need uninterrupted access to NCD medications over the life course. Many of these people have faced a high price of NCD drugs due to the existing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, which was now exacerbated by the tropical cyclone. As part of NORAD-funded NCD activities ensuring access to essential NCD medicine, WHO Myanmar supported provision of eight essential NCD drugs for a duration of three months to 20,000 people with NCDs (including Hypertension, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases) through the Disaster Management Committee and other humanitarian partners with access to cyclone affected people in the immediate aftermath of cyclone Mocha.
Amid the disrupted medical supply chain due to the impact of cyclone, WHO Myanmar’s support for provision of 8 essential NCD medicine relieved the concerns of 20,000 people living with NCDs from the cyclone affected areas ensuring treatment adherence despite the challenges of high price and intermittent drug shortages in the market. This support consequently mitigated the risk of acute noncommunicable disease exacerbation by filling the gap of limited resource. One of the humanitarian actors mentioned that the WHO Myanmar support addressed the urgent requirement of essential NCD medicine ensuring delivery of primary healthcare services as their response in cyclone affected areas of Rakhine state.
Stroke, ischemic heart diseases (IHDs), chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) and diabetes are included in top 10 causes of death in Myanmar according to 2019 WHO country level mortality data2. Access to quality NCD services and medicines is a critical challenge for people living in remote areas and regions prone to extreme weather events in Myanmar. While the increased incidence of natural disasters and conflicts are currently observed globally, the aftermath of these events highlights the necessity to effectively manage NCDs throughout the process of emergency preparedness and response.
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