A medic stitches the head of a wounded Syrian boy at a makeshift clinic after a mortar reportedly fell in the besieged rebel town of Douma, 13 kilometers (eight miles) northeast of Damascus, on November 11, 2014. AFP/ Abd Doumany
One million people have been wounded during the nearly four-year old Syrian war, and diseases are spreading as regular supplies of medicine fail to reach patients, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Syria representative said.
A plunge in vaccination rates from 90 percent before the war to 52 percent this year and contaminated water has added to the woes, allowing typhoid and hepatitis to spread, Elizabeth Hoff said in an interview late on Thursday.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in Syria’s conflict, which began in March 2011 with popular protests against President Bashar al-Assad and spiraled into a war.
“In Syria, they have a million people injured as a direct result of the war. You can see it in the country when you travel around. You see a lot of amputees,” said Hoff. “This is the biggest problem.”
She said a collapsed health system, where over half of public hospitals are out of service, has meant that treatments for diseases and injuries are irregular.
“What has been a problem is the regularity of supply,” she said. “The (government) approvals are sporadic.”
Hoff said that Assad’s government – which demands to sign off on aid convoys – is still blocking surgical supplies, such as bandages and syringes, from entering rebel-held areas, arguing that the equipment would be used to help insurgents.
Syrian officials could not be reached for comment on Thursday or Friday.
More than 6,500 cases of typhoid were reported this year across Syria and 4,200 cases of measles, the deadliest disease for Syrian children, Hoff said.
There was just one reported case of polio, which can paralyze children within hours, in 2014 following a vaccination drive. However, other new diseases appeared, including myiasis, a tropical disease spread by flies which is also known as screw-worm, with 10 cases seen in the outskirts of Damascus.
Syrian activists in the Eastern Ghouta district of Damascus said that tuberculosis was also spreading due to poor sanitary conditions and a government siege on the area, blocking aid.
The United Nations called on Thursday for more than $8.4 billion to help nearly 18 million people in need in Syria and across the region in 2015.
Hoff said that the WHO delivered more than 13.5 million treatments of life-saving medicines and medical supplies in 2014, up nearly threefold from the year before.
However, Hoff added that “the needs are not possible to believe,” saying that the problems were growing at an even faster pace with poor water access and deepening poverty worsening the health crisis.
A UN refugee agency (UNHCR) report published in mid-November shows that about 7.2 million people have been displaced within Syria, many without food or shelter as winter has started.
The report also estimates that some 3.3 million Syrian refugees live abroad, most of them living in squalid informal camps, exposed to the heat of summer and cold of winter.
(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)
