28 June 2016 –Today, WHO shipped a plane loaded with life-saving medicines and supplies to Tripoli to meet the acute health humanitarian needs in Libya, particularly for people most heavily affected by the recent conflict.

The supplies include life-saving medicines, injectable antibiotics, trauma care supplies, intravenous infusions and kits. These medicines will be sufficient for 20 000 patients for a minimum period of 3 months. WHO has stored these supplies in its warehouse in Tripoli and will be releasing the supplies based on actual needs and demands of hospitals and health centres in different parts of Libya, as well as calculations based on a health assessment conducted by WHO. More life-saving supplies will arrive in the coming days, which will also include some minor medical equipment.

The procurement of these supplies have been made possible through funds allocated from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund and WHO's Contingency Fund for Emergencies. While these supplies will meet some of the acute health humanitarian demands for the coming weeks and months, they fall short of meeting the enormous health humanitarian needs of vulnerable populations, particularly internally displaced persons, immigrants, those with physical injuries and those living in areas in which hospitals and health clinics are dysfunctional.

Greater funding from the international community is required to meet the acute shortage of life-saving medicines and supplies required by a vulnerable Libyan population.

Related link

Central Emergency Response Fund