Health Rights: 

• Traditional Medicine, What happened? 
• The Mandatory Tetanus Toxoid Vaccine and miscarriages among the Akha. The World Health Organization (WHO) response to our inquiry. 
• Vaccines, education and choice. 
• Good faith and fairness in health care accessibility. 
• Freedom from the fear of sterilization without informed consent. 
• Farming chemical manufacturers and Akha health.

Medical "Care" In The Villages.

Many Akha continue to depend on traditional medicine that has been used in their communities for years.  Traditional medicine and healing is often done in conjunction with ceremonies that are integral to the unity and support for each other in the village.

The spirit woman or healer in the village plays a vital role in the care for sick children and adults.

It is a tragedy that one of the first people silenced by western ignorant and zealous religious people is the spirit woman or Nyeeh Pah.  Since she is not like "them" she is discourage from her work.

The villagers should buy medicine, which of course they don't have the money or transport for.

Villages which have suffered significant displacement may be in need of first aid services particularly when it comes to preventing infant death.

White rice offers no comparison nutritionally to Akha mountain rice so relocated villagers immediately suffer a drop in nutrition even if they can afford to buy rice which is not necessarily guaranteed.

Of concerns are the way in which the Akha get treated in the hospitals and clinics.  Or they may not even arrive if they get held up at a police checkpoint.  Although medical care is thought to be free in Thailand, most Akha still have to pay, and if not they are not given treatment for them or their child.

To make matters worse, it would not appear that many of the medical staff in the rural clinics really like their job as they often send the patients away with inadequate treatment or none at all.

Vaccines are another issue, the clinics insisting that they know best and that the pregnant women must be vaccinated three times during pregnancy.  Women who resist this are told they will get no ID card for their child.  This situation has repeatedly been confirmed.

Some villages note an unusual number of late trimester miscarriages.

Medical conditions are not related to the incredible poverty that has been imposed on many villages due to loss of land at the hand of the government and relocation's.

It would appear that many clinics have not been located at their locations solely for the current residents in the area but for those who are coming to replace them.

The Thai health authorities however can be credited with their monitoring and pursuit of new cases of malaria.
 

Tetanus Toxoid Vaccines
When the Akha do need to depend on external health care for their villages it needs to be dependable.  Far too often they have had their villages impoverished creating nutrition and health problems and then when they go to the local clinics they are only given service based on how much they can pay.

Vaccinations are an important issue. Are they safe?  Do western women accept vaccinations during pregnancy that can shock the unborn and the woman's body?  Not likely, yet Akha women are ordered to accept two tetanus toxoid vaccinations during pregnancy.

There is little care for the elderly in situations of broken down villages where all the youngsters have been pulled out.  Nor is there any form of hospice.

Suicide is a problem in the villages which have been pressed down the hardest.

Forced Sterilizations - Yup, still going on.