SYRIA CRISIS : MEDICINE SHORTAGE WORSENS CONDITIONS IN SYRIA

SYRIA CRISIS : MEDICINE SHORTAGE WORSENS CONDITIONS IN SYRIA

 

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The situation in Syria is deteriorating in more than just the visible ways.  What the World Health Organization is reporting now is that there is a frightening shortage of doctors, who have fled the worse areas and that many hospitals have been closed.

In the beginning of the conflict, rebels who were brought to the hospitals were targeted and often killed, placing the doctors treating them directly in the  line of fire between the authorities and the rebels.

A new problem that is surfacing, is an extreme shortage of medicines, even basic ones.   Conditions are rife for epidemics, as both the water and sanitation systems are collapsing under the heavy shelling of the regime.  Hepatitis A has been reported in Aleppo and Idlib, as of this week, and some people are particularly at risk because they are huddled in shelters that are bursting at the seams.

Many of the relief operations are also being cautious and are avoiding deliveries of medicine and assistance to the worse hit areas, especially those that are under the control of the opposition.  In some cases this is because the opposition has barricaded the routes, blocking access from factories that make medicines that are needed. 

Until negotiations ensue between the rescue operators and the opposition, it will be nearly impossible to deliver much needed medicines. 

In addition, because hospitals are shuttered or demolished, many people try to avoid the security forces that are patrolling the remaining facilities, and seek care at their home, or at the home of the surgeons, making it more difficult to distribute medicines in a  decentralized system.

Source : Al Jazeera 2.5.13