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The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) Tuesday said that, according to reports it has received, Syria is experiencing critical shortages in medicines and pharmaceutical products.

“The recent escalation of clashes had resulted in substantial damages to the pharmaceutical plants located in rural Aleppo, Homs and Rural Damascus, where 90 per cent of the country’s plants were located,” a WHO spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. “Many of these plants had now closed down, thus resulting in a critical shortage of medicines.”

According to a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) here on Wednesday, prior to the violence which has wracked the Middle Eastern country, Syria produced 90 per cent of its medicines and drugs locally.

However, this production has slowed down due to insecurity, the decreased availability of raw materials, sanctions and increased fuel costs stemming from the violence that has killed an estimated 17,000 people, mostly civilians, since some 17 months ago.

Among the most urgently needed medicines are drugs to treat tuberculosis, hepatitis, hypertension, diabetes and cancer, as well as haemodialysis for kidney diseases, according to WHO. Chemical reagents for blood screening tests are also urgently needed to ensure the safety and quality of blood used in surgical and trauma cases.

“The health sector had been heavily affected in conflict areas as hospitals and health centres had been closed, damaged or controlled by parties to the conflict,” Jasarevic said. “Public health facilities were often inaccessible due to ongoing violence and lack of public transportation.”

The spokesperson added that the main challenge faced by WHO staff remained unhindered access to those in need. The health agency has been working with Syria’s Ministry of Health, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other partners since the beginning of the conflict to address the health needs of crisis-affected populations.

“This [includes] the provision of ambulances, the refurbishing and equipping of mobile health clinics, and providing medicines and medical supplies for 700,000 people,” Jasarevic said, noting that the Ministry of Health had reported having lost 200 ambulances over the last few weeks.

To ensure access to essential health services – including life-saving medical and surgical services in directly and indirectly affected areas – WHO and its health sector partners are supporting trauma management at primary health care centres and hospitals.

Addressing reporters at the same media encounter in Geneva, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Program (WFP), Elisabeth Byrs, said that the food relief agency has sent assistance for distribution to 28,000 people in Aleppo over the next few days to address food shortages there.

Since the intensification of clashes in Aleppo in July, WFP has reached close to 46,000 people in the city with urgent food assistance. Overall, during the month of July, WFP’s food assistance reached 541,575 people in most of Syria’s governorates – the agency had aimed to reach 850,000 people, but was prevented from doing so by the violence. - pna

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