The earthquake that struck Myanmar and surrounding countries on March 28 caused immense loss of life, trauma, and damage, while compounding the challenges communities were already facing.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams were rapidly deployed to assess the situation and respond to the needs of people affected, taking a diverse and agile approach as new issues emerge in the vast area that was hit.
The earthquake created a crisis within a crisis in Myanmar, where a prolonged armed conflict and the political situation has eroded the health care system, impeding access to care. All people impacted by the earthquake—no matter which side of the conflict—need access to lifesaving humanitarian assistance.
Myanmar earthquake response
The earthquake's impact
3,769 people killed, 5,106 injured, and 107 missing, as of April 27
An estimated 17.2 million people live in affected areas
More than 10,000 buildings damaged or collapsed
Over 193 health care centers damaged or destroyed
Electricity, water, and telecommunications
remain disrupted in the hardest-hit areas, hampering relief efforts.
The main needs in Myanmar
Water, sanitation, and hygiene: Safe drinking water is needed and domestic sanitation systems are severely damaged. As the rainy season approaches, the potential flood-related contamination of water sources significantly raises the risk of outbreaks of waterborne disease such as cholera, and vector-borne diseases like malaria or dengue fever.
Housing: The situation for temporarily or permanently displaced people living in makeshift accommodations will most likely worsen during the approaching monsoon and cyclone season. Appropriate housing is urgently needed.
Health care: Damaged medical facilities and power shortages are severely impacting people’s access to health care at a time when waterborne diseases are posing a growing threat. “The health care system has been severely impacted at multiple levels, with secondary care being particularly affected,” said Adrian Guadarrama, MSF program manager for Myanmar in early April. “Hospitals, including operating theaters, are non-functional—not only for emergency surgeries but also for essential procedures like C-sections.”
Medical supplies: While Myanmar has sufficient numbers of well-trained medical personnel, supplies are running short.
Protection and mental health: Family separation, sexual and gender-based violence, and psychosocial distress are key concerns in the protection of children and women, especially those living in makeshift camps.
Latest MSF operations in Myanmar
Currently, MSF teams are focusing on providing safe drinking water, sanitation, shelter, non-food items, mental health support, and medical assistance. Assessments of needs are still ongoing in certain areas.
Mental health
In Mandalay, our teams trained more than 200 volunteers (including professors, teachers, medical students, doctors, and nurses) on psychological first aid. These volunteers are now providing psychological first aid, group sessions, counseling, and activities for children.
Water and sanitation
Our teams are setting up latrines and installing hand-washing basins, water taps, pressure pumps, water tanks, and soap dispensers. We have also restored over 200 boreholes and have installed over 20 water tanks in damaged hospitals in addition to restoring electricity and helping to organize waste management.
Medical care
Mobile medical teams are providing consultations in makeshift shelters, including in monasteries, to treat conditions ranging from common illnesses to chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. MSF teams run mobile clinics in eight locations within the city and region of Mandalay as well as in two locations in Sagaing city and in four villages in Inle Lake.
Health promotion and education
Activities aim to promote awareness of good hygiene practices and disease prevention.
Distribution of supplies
MSF teams have distributed 2,070 kits of non-food items (typically containing a lighter, blanket, tarp, mosquito net, jerry can, soap, towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, menstrual pads, bucket, hairbrush, chlorine, and diaper) in the city and region of Mandalay, in addition to 600 mosquito nets. About 1,300 mosquito nets have been distributed in Inle Lake, Southern Shan, where we have also provided shelter supplies such as bamboo, wood, and tools.
Support for health facilities
Our teams are supporting hospitals that were damaged by the earthquake with logistical rehabilitations. For example, we donated a large tent to TadaU Hospital to house patients and supplied 10 hospital beds.
MSF response by region
- Mobile clinics covering four villages and providing referrals for higher-level care when needed.
- Psychological first aid to promote community health.
- Repairs to water treatment units, community latrines, and boreholes.
- Health promotion activities on good hygiene practices and disease prevention.
- Distribution of hygiene kits and shelter materials such as bamboo, wood, and tools.
- Distribution of non-food item kits, reaching over 2,000 families to date.
- Restoration of water access, sanitation, and electricity for health facilities damaged by the earthquake, as well as for displaced people and rural communities. Our team restored 140 water sources in Ba Le Ba, a community of 475 families.
- Temporary mobile clinics to improve access to health care for affected people in more than eight locations.
- Training on psychological first aid for over 200 volunteers.
- Support for the resumption of services in damaged health facilities, including tuberculosis (TB) care.
- Disease surveillance for response to outbreaks such as cholera, dengue, and malaria.
- Mobile clinics in two locations, providing basic health care and care for patients with non-communicable diseases.
- Mental health care including psychological first aid, group sessions for children, and individual counseling for adults.
Survivors' stories
Some survivors have told MSF teams that they sometimes get the sensation that the ground is moving under their feet. “They are afraid, particularly because of the aftershocks,” said Mark Maxwell, mental health activity manager in Myanmar. “We have people in the camps whose homes are still intact but they are worried to go back in ... We are seeing quite a lot of survivors’ guilt as well—people who have managed to escape the earthquake, but loved ones didn't—and maybe think they could have done more, could have saved them.”
"I just want my husband back"
"My husband and I were having dinner. When it started, he ran to find our son. Then the big glass pot broke and water was leaking out. He slipped and fell between the kitchen and the main house, and the red bricks on top fell one by one. When it all crumbled, I didn’t know what to do.
My head felt like it was burning. Another big stone hit my head. When the shaking was over, a big stone from the house fell and hit my head again.
My father was in Kyaukse on the day of the earthquake. My mother was lucky enough to get out of the house in time.
When the earthquake hit, five people were trapped inside, including my child ... It took five hours to dig him out of the rubble. They found my son wrapped in my sisters arms. She did not survive. And I lost my husband too. Because he was the first to start running, I thought he had escaped. My child is too young to lose his father.
When [my] child came out, he had scratches on his head and bruises on his hands. He has been very scared since. I’m afraid it will happen again.
I just want my husband back."
"We first thought it was a mine or a bomb ... it sounded so familiar."
"On March 28, we were all on the fourth floor making moon cakes and samosas for the next day. I was about to open the shop, so I was putting away the ingredients and at that moment, I heard a loud bang. To be honest, we first thought it was a mine or a bomb. We came here from the conflict zone; it sounded so familiar.
Then the Buddha statue fell ... The house was shaking. When the first earthquake stopped, we tried to get out, and a glass jar fell on my leg. I could not get up. We had to move things to get out of the house.
Many buildings in our neighborhood have collapsed. There were not enough ambulances. We were able to help carry the sick and the dead with our tricycle. We did what we could. When we see those collapsed buildings, we feel very bad. In my heart, it's not good.
My daughter’s hand was slightly injured. It wasn’t too bad. But when she hears a loud sound now, she wants to run. Her heart is beating fast in her chest, and she’s very scared. She used to want to live in a big building with three or four floors, but now she feels very scared after this earthquake. She is in third grade now."
"Grandma was taken out in a wheelchair"
"On the 28th, we had visitors at our house. We were in the kitchen making rice and frying cakes for them. When the earthquake started, I first thought it was the rain. From the kitchen I called out to my mother: 'Mom, the rain is coming' ... Then I realized that it wasn't rain, it was an earthquake.
I sat down in the kitchen with my 6-year-old daughter, we almost fell to the ground. The wooden chair we had just been sitting on tumbled and hit my head, but I was lucky.
I'm 35 years old and have never experienced such a violent earthquake. I shouted to the elderly neighbors to get out of the house. My grandmother is paralyzed, so of course she couldn’t walk, but she said, 'Don’t come to me, I’ll slip under this bed.'
No one was hurt. When the second earthquake hit, the whole family and I were in the large field in front of the house. Grandma was taken out in a wheelchair."
