Geneva: Up to 100 wounded are being admitted each day to the main Damascus hospital, where medicines and anaesthetics are in short supply due to the civil war raging in Syria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. More women and children are showing up among the injured as the conflict escalates around the capital, it said.
“The most frequently observed injuries are burns, gunshots and injuries from explosions,” WHO spokesman Tareq Jasarevic told a news briefing in Geneva.
“Shortages of ointments for burns and equipment and supplies for anaesthesia and surgical interventions have been reported,” he said, adding that part of the problem was that sanctions slapped on Syria were limiting availability of some supplies.
Doctors at the Damascus Hospital, which WHO officials visited last week, reported that they have had to use local anaesthetics even for complicated operations, due to a severe shortage of nitrogen oxide gas, he said.
There has been an increase in the number of cases of severe acute malnutrition being referred to the hospital from Rural Damascus, Deir al-Zor, Hassakeh, Deraa and Homs, he said. The UN humanitarian chief is urging Syria’s regime to allow fuel and more aid agencies into the country to help deal with a crisis that is worsening by the day as winter cold, hunger and homelessness tighten their grip.
Valerie Amos, who has just returned from Damascus, said she also told President Bashar Al Assad’s government that the UN planned to step up its contacts with opposition members as part of its nationwide relief efforts.
Her comments underscore the severity of the humanitarian problems in an expanding civil war in which as many as 3m people have fled their homes and conflict zones such as the biggest city of Aleppo are running desperately short of bread.
