MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th February, 2020) The World Health Organization's Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (WHO-EMRO) on Monday expressed its concern for civilians who have had to flee due to the escalation of hostilities in the Syrian province of Idlib that has also resulted in the closure of dozens of medical facilities.
According to WHO-EMRO, at least 53 health facilities have closed since January 1 due to concerns over safety, the threat of attacks or due to a lack of patients given that hundreds of thousands of citizens have fled the region due to the violence.
"The current situation in northwest Syria - characterized by lack of access and medicine, insufficient hygiene, chaos and mass displacement - poses a significant risk of outbreaks of measles, diarrhoeal diseases and other diseases," Rick Brennan, WHO-EMRO's regional emergency director, said in the press release.
WHO-EMRO also condemned targeted attacks on medical facilities in the province. Since the start of the year, the organization has verified two such strikes in northwestern Syria that resulted in the deaths of 10 people.
The organization is also working to stockpile medicine and increase the number of mobile clinics that can follow the movements of displaced peoples.
"Prepositioned on both sides of the Syria/Turkey border, we have a 2-month supply of essential medicine - but in the light of the extent of the crisis, we fear the demand will be far greater than the supply," Brennan stated.
According to WHO-EMRO, approximately 2.9 million people in northwestern Syria are in need of health care.
Fighting has intensified in Idlib province amid a Syrian army operation in the region to recapture areas of the de-escalation zone held by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia).
Tensions have been raised on Monday. The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced that five Turkish military personnel and one Turkish civilian had been killed in shelling by Syrian government forces in Idlib. The ministry later announced that retaliatory strikes "neutralized" 76 Syrian military personnel.
