Doctors warn of medical and humanitarian disaster in Syria

Syrian doctors warned of a “medical and humanitarian disaster” in their country saying the four years of conflict have destroyed the country’s healthcare system and led to the re-emergence of diseases that had already been eradicated.

Obaida Al-Mufti, a French-Syrian doctor and member of the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organisations (UOSSM), told reporters in Paris: “The situation is unbearable, catastrophic and many in Syria no longer have access to medical care.”

Diseases such as polio tuberculosis, scabies and typhoid have returned and as many as 80 per cent of births are taking place at home and children are no longer vaccinated, Al-Mufti said yesterday.

A doctor from Aleppo, Syria’s second largest city, said it has only five hospitals, three of them are partially functioning. Dr Abdul Aziz Al-Halabi pointed out that there are only 30 doctors serving a community of 250,000 people.

Another doctor described the situation as “intolerable” in the rebel held eastern Ghouta which has been besieged by government troops for more than two years and “there is no possibility for the introduction of humanitarian aid”.

In the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa, a doctor said: “Doctors can work, but they do not receive any support from non-governmental organisations because they have left these areas.”

UOSSM is trying to work in every territory, whether held by government troops, opposition troops or the Islamic State. “We are neutral, but we are exposed to violence from everyone and none of us has a guarantee from any party whatsoever,” they said.

Tawfiq Shamaa, a UOSSM representative in Switzerland, condemned what he described as “international silence” on the daily suffering of Syrians. “All the media talks about now is extremism and ISIS, not the women and children who are killed, the bodies torn to shreds, which we deal with on a daily basis as doctors,” he said.