This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
Monday 16 Nov 2015 - 18:39 Makkah mean time-4-2-1437
(Image from AFP)
Geneva (IINA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) stated on Friday that about 25,000 people get injured each month in escalating warfare in Syria. It also indicated that greater difficulties are facing medical supplies delivery to civilians who are trapped in areas held by ISIS, Reuters reported.
It said that typhoid and diarrhea are on the rise due to the lack of clean water, pointing out that an increase in acute respiratory infections is expected, especially among children and the elderly during the winter. In addition, there were concerns that deadly cholera could spread into Syria coming from Iraq.
"The main concern is of course communicable diseases, but also trauma cases. We have more than 25,000 newly injured per month in Syria and the system is overburdened," Elizabeth Hoff, WHO representative in Syria, told a news briefing in Geneva.
Between the first and second quarters of 2015, there was a 30 percent rise in patients seeking treatment in Latakia hospital's emergency department, Hoff said, referring to a government-held coastal region where many displaced have fled.
The Syrian government has restricted delivery of surgical supplies to opposition-held areas, she said. "We have compensated by supplying surgical supplies cross-border from Jordan and also from Turkey, and many international NGOs are stepping up to this task, but it is certainly not enough".
At least 60 percent of Syria's 113 public hospitals and 50 percent of the 1,783 primary health care centers have closed or been partially destroyed in the conflict since March 2011, according to the WHO's latest update.
Many hospitals lack generators or even blankets, Hoff pointed out. Vaccination coverage has dropped to only 60 percent among Syrian children under five, leaving them vulnerable to disease.
"What we are trying to advocate is a truce so we can go in and have proper vaccination across Syria," Hoff said.
The UN health agency has no contact with Islamic State forces controlling territory where an estimated 1.7 million Syrians live but has managed to deliver small amounts of medical supplies to a network of doctors there, she noted.
There has been no confirmed case of cholera in Syria, but an epidemic in neighboring Iraq has infected 2,671 people since September and spread to Kuwait and Bahrain, according to WHO.
"Cholera is a high risk [in Syria], particularly after the outbreak that we have seen in Iraq ... We are facing this by deploying rapid diagnostic tests into many of the areas but access is not easy," Hoff said.
AG/IINA
|
No comments:
Post a Comment