Charity Organization Reveals Poor Conditions of Health-care and Medical Support in Syria

Political conflicts in Syria have seriously affected medical and health-care facilities causing deaths and diseases among millions of children.  

The three-year civil war against President Bashar al-Assad has resulted in reduced access to medical treatments for serious diseases like cancer, epilepsy, asthma, diabetes and kidney failure.

The reports- A Devastating Toll: impact of three years of War on the Health of Syria's Children, issued by a non-profit organization 'Save the Children' revealed nearly 60 percent of hospitals and 93 percent of hospital ambulances have been destroyed, damaged or stolen. Almost half of Syria's doctors have left the country and most of the health-care staff and workers have been killed or imprisoned.

It was found that many children have undergone limb amputations due to lack of equipment in the clinics and power cuts have led to infant deaths in incubators. Many parents of sick children have themselves administered intravenous drips due to absence of staff in the hospitals. The extreme shortage of anesthesia has forced doctors to knock down patients with a metal rod and numerous patients died receiving blood transfusions of wrong blood types.   

Roger Hearn, the regional director of Save the Children, said in a news release, "This humanitarian crisis has fast become a health crisis. Children inside are enduring barbaric conditions. Simply finding a doctor is a matter of luck; finding one with the necessary equipment and medication to provide proper treatment has become almost impossible. The desperate measures to which medical personnel are resorting to keep children alive are increasingly harrowing."

The country also experienced a rampant rise in the life-threatening diseases like measles and meningitis. Northern Syria alone is shown having 84 cases of measles attacks in children aged below five.  Nearly 80,000 children in the country are affected with polio.

Apart from a severe damage to the healthcare system, the war has affected 6.5 million children. Hearn said, "international community is failing Syria's children, as they are injured and wounded and are unable to access treatment, as they contract polio and other preventable diseases that kill and disfigure them, and as they suffer and die from not being able to get the right medicine. World leaders must stand up for the smallest victims of this conflict and send a clear message that their suffering and deaths will no longer be tolerated."