BANGKOK – Myanmar’s most populous urban center, Yangon, is facing a worrying spike in acute diarrhea cases that has compounded the cascading crises facing the conflict-wracked nation already reeling from widespread severe flooding and years of civil unrest, state media confirmed Friday.
State-run publication Myanma Alinn reported that over the four-day period ending Friday, 182 diarrhea patients were admitted to Yangon General Hospital, with 93 of those patients testing positive for pathogens known to cause the gastrointestinal illness. The official report did not name the specific pathogens detected, nor did it confirm whether any cases were cholera, a highly contagious waterborne disease that can turn fatal if left untreated.
However, local independent Myanmar news outlet Eleven Media previously reported Wednesday, citing Aye Mya Thae Phyu, a lawmaker representing Yangon’s Latha township, that the positive test results were confirmed to be cholera. On Thursday, the military government’s information team also confirmed to reporters that one 92-year-old patient has died from the disease.
In comments published by the state newspaper, Aung Lin Aye, deputy medical superintendent of Yangon General Hospital, acknowledged that case numbers have climbed sharply in recent days. The hospital has reallocated resources to prioritize life-saving treatment and prevent additional fatalities, he added.
According to the report, Nanda Win, director of the Yangon Regional Department of Public Health, noted that most cases are concentrated in Yangon’s downtown Chinatown district, a dense hub packed with street food vendors, restaurants, and bars. Unsafe takeaway food from street vendors and contaminated drinking water used by these small businesses are the most likely sources of the outbreak, Nanda Win said, while adding that new case numbers have started to trend downward in recent days.
Another state-owned publication, *Global New Light of Myanmar*, reported that public health authorities have ordered street food vendors selling high-risk items to suspend operations for three days to slow the spread of the pathogen. Three Chinatown food and beverage establishments confirmed the mandatory three-day closure to the Associated Press in on-the-record interviews.
Acute gastrointestinal outbreaks are a recurring annual threat for Yangon during the monsoon season, when heavy rains often contaminate local water supplies. World Health Organization data shows that in 2024 alone, more than 2,200 people were hospitalized with acute watery diarrhea in Yangon, resulting in 15 recorded deaths.
This latest public health emergency emerges as widespread monsoon flooding continues to displace communities across large swathes of Myanmar, adding another layer of hardship to a population already exhausted by more than three years of armed conflict. The conflict erupted in 2021, when the military seized power in a coup that ousted the elected civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a nationwide civil war that has crippled the country’s healthcare system and economy.