Mon Rubber Tappers Receptive to Malaria Prevention Messages

Despite language difficulties, migrant Mon rubber plantation workers in Thailand’s Trad province give their full cooperation to malaria workers in the fixed-schedule clinics. Nat Sumon reports.

A young Mon migrant at work tapping rubber. Pix by WHO/ Nat Sumon

The economy of Trad, along the Thai-Cambodian border, is fuelled by mobile migrant workers from Cambodia who meet the Thai province’s labour shortages in fruit-picking, rice harvesting, logging, rubber tapping, construction work and retail businesses. But now the economic landscape seems to be changing fast with the influx of migrant workers from Myanmar. And they can be found almost everywhere in Thailand – including Trad’s rubber plantations.

While a worker can make a decent living from tapping rubber, because of the current high global prices, Thais, however, find that job unattractive. Because of this acute shortage of labour in Thai rubber plantations, owners have not much of a choice but to seek workers from neighbouring countries. And mobile migrant workers from Mon State in Myanmar have answered that clarion call, albeit at wages lower than Thais.

Sitting leisurely in his cousin’s thatch-roofed wooden house, Kyaw Htoo (not his real name) recalled his journey from Mon State 13 years ago.  He was a rubber tapper in Myanmar before moving to Thailand. He said the Mon community in Trad had grown over the years, crossing the Thai-Myanmar border in the west to work in the numerous rubber plantations in Thailand’s far-flung eastern province.

“More and more Mon workers cross the border because of word-of-mouth that there are jobs in the rubber plantations,” said Kyaw Htoo.

The number of migrant Mon workers making their way to Trad’s rubber plantations is increasing steadily. Pix by WHO/ Nat Sumon

Nonetheless, there is a public health concern with this influx of Mon migrant workers from malaria-endemic Myanmar. Cross-border and mobile migrant populations could be the source of the spread of multi-drug resistant malaria parasites due to their back and forth travel between malaria endemic areas and their place of work.

Because of these concerns, the fixed-schedule malaria clinics run by the Bureau of Vector-Borne Diseases (BVBD), with technical assistance from WHO, were introduced to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Containment Project to enable on-the-spot detection of the plasmodium parasite in the itinerant workers. These fixed-schedule malaria clinics operate right on the border, in villages where Thailand and Cambodia meet.

Kyaw Htoo and his cousins first got to know about the mosquito-borne disease during the visit of a malaria worker from the Bor Rai fixed-schedule malaria clinic. “There was a language barrier at first. Though we did not fully understand the disease, we now know it’s caused by mosquitoes,” said Kyaw Htoo.

“The malaria worker told us to sleep under insecticide-treated nets, wear long clothes to protect ourselves from mosquito bites while we were out tapping rubber before dawn, and apply mosquito repellent,” added the Mon worker. “We understood that clearly and we are following exactly what the malaria worker told us,” he emphasized.

Aung Naing (not his real name), a cousin of Kyaw Htoo, moved to Trad from Mon State a couple of years ago.

“Whenever I have a fever, I’ll go to the malaria clinic to have my blood tested for malaria,” he revealed. Then he paused and smiled. “So far none of the Mon workers here have tested positive for malaria,” Aung Naing pointed out. “We take seriously all the preventive measures, as instructed to us by the malaria worker.”

Like Kyaw Htoo and Aung Naing, 18-year-old Htun Htun (not his real name) who moved to Trad province after spending five years in rubber plantations in southern Thailand, does not fully understand the causes of malaria. But he told CONTAINMENT that he took the malaria worker’s advice on disease prevention seriously.

An insecticide-treated net hangs alongside the daily apparel of a Mon rubber tapper. Pix by WHO/ Nat Sumon

The usefulness of the early diagnosis and treatment provided by the fixed-scheduled malaria clinics run by BVBD is clearly evident.

Every week Mr. Angkoon Chawilai, one of the malaria workers in Bor Rai Malaria clinic, would visit the rubber tappers in his area to do blood tests and administer treatment if there are positive cases, give out ITNs and mosquito repellents and educate the Mon populations on malaria prevention.

“The local people know me and I’ve always have had good cooperation from the rubber tappers,” said Mr. Chawilai. “The Mon rubber workers are very receptive to malaria prevention information,” he added.

The malaria worker revealed that Mon migrant workers in the rubber plantations were less mobile compared to those migrant workers involved in logging and seasonal fruit-picking.

“This is a positive point when it comes to malaria containment because their movements are controlled as they’re not moving about from place to place spreading the malaria parasite,” Mr. Chawilai pointed out.

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