2025 Earthquake
On 28th March 2025, Myanmar was struck by two earthquakes, the strongest of which measured 7.7 on the Richter scale, and subsequent aftershocks were as strong as 5.5. This caused significant destruction, including the collapse of hospitals and the Mandalay’s Ava Bridge – a major transport link – which delayed much needed aid and cut off access to hospitals. Current reports indicate that 4,000 people died, and more than 5,000 sustained injuries. Many people remain unaccounted for nationwide. The earthquake has pushed two million people into reliance on aid, according to the UN.
Doctors of the World has been present in Myanmar since 1993. Our team on the ground assessed the situation following the disaster and launched our response by prioritising the deployment of aid and supplies as well as setting up mobile clinics.
The situation
The climate disaster of March 2025 came as the country was already facing a multidimensional crisis—political, economic, social, health, and humanitarian.
The 2021 military coup in Myanmar plunged the country into dire poverty, forcing 3.5 million people to flee their homes, severely undermining the healthcare system.
Myanmar faces one of the largest epidemics of HIV/AIDs in Asia, with over 280,000 people living with the virus. Access to screening, treatment, and antiretroviral medicines is particularly difficult due to high levels of drug use, discrimination of sex workers, alongside movement restrictions put into place because of the ongoing armed conflict, which escalated from the 2021 coup into a civil war. This has caused an estimated 14 million people in Myanmar to need humanitarian assistance.
Our Work
Rangoon (Yangon)
Since 2014, our team has been actively working with the sex worker community in Rangoon. We operate with peer educators in mobile clinics to prevent, screen for and treat HIV. Our fixed clinic supports 1,000 people every year where – in addition to antiretroviral treatment – our patients can access counselling and be screened for other diseases such as tuberculosis. Doctors of the World works closely with local support groups and other organisations on education programmes to improve nutrition and people’s financial stability.
Our teams also work with the Ministry of Health to make health services more accessible and to establish a national plan to combat HIV in Myanmar. This aims to reduce the scale of the epidemic, as it currently affects 14.6% of sex workers and 11.6% of men who have sex with men.
Kachin State
In Kachin State, in the North of Myanmar, Doctors of the World works with drug users who are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and Hepatitis C. Our teams offer supplies, such as sterile syringes, needles, alcohol swabs, and condoms, as well as screening for HIV, TB and hepatitis, and education on available antiretroviral treatments.
Mobile Clinics
Doctors of the World operates four clinics operating in 90 sites across three towns. Our team of health workers and peer educators conduct prevention and awareness sessions and provide substitution treatment by methadone. In 2021, we supported over 7,500 people through our harm reduction activities in Kachin, aiming to reduce violence against drug users and promote the methadone substitution programme.
