Photo – AFP
(This English Column is the ISP’s translation of the original Burmese version published on April 02, 2025. Read the original Burmese Column here.)
Myanmar is now grappling with the severe consequences of the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck along the Sagaing Fault on 28 March 2025. In major cities such as Mandalay, Sagaing, and Naypyitaw, collapsed buildings and a rising toll of injuries and deaths have produced a surge in demand for emergency care that far exceeds the system’s capacity. The regime has appealed for international assistance, and emergency aid has begun to arrive. Yet a critical resource remains largely untapped at home.
Alongside external aid stands a vital domestic force: medical professionals from the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Before the coup, they constituted roughly half of the national healthcare workforce—around 47,000 people. In the current emergency, there is an urgent need for the State Administration Council (SAC) to provide security guarantees, recall CDM health workers, and reopen public hospitals.
A functioning healthcare system is indispensable in the aftermath of an earthquake. Across six states and regions, thousands have been left homeless, injured, or dead, and the numbers are likely to rise. Even in normal times, public hospitals are understaffed and overstretched; in a crisis of this magnitude, providing adequate care is almost impossible without reinforcements. CDM health workers are trained doctors, nurses, and other professionals whose expertise and labour are urgently needed as the country confronts this disaster.
Myanmar will only recover swiftly from this earthquake if CDM staff are recalled, hospitals that were closed are permitted to reopen, and international aid is used effectively.
Recalling CDM staff with credible guarantees of safety is therefore essential. The SAC has previously dismissed, arrested, and imprisoned CDM personnel. Now, however, public health must come before anything else.
At this critical moment, the SAC should urgently:
- Formally guarantee that no legal action or arrests will be taken against CDM staff returning to provide medical services,
- Publicly invite and encourage them to resume work at a time when the country most needs their skills and,
- Permit the emergency reopening of private hospitals and specialist clinics in affected areas, as keeping them closed further endangers lives.
The central imperative is clear: the lives of ordinary people must come first. In the face of a natural disaster, protecting the population should take precedence over all other considerations. Myanmar will only recover swiftly from this earthquake if CDM staff are recalled, hospitals that were closed are permitted to reopen, and international aid is used effectively. The strength of the healthcare system will shape the country’s prospects long after the tremors subside. That strength cannot be rebuilt on political exclusion. There is an urgent need for the SAC to make decisions on humanitarian grounds rather than based on political discrimination.
Dr. Win Maw is a CDM medical professional specializing in public health.