4 December 2016 – As the conflict in Aleppo intensifies, WHO and partners are providing lifesaving services and health supplies for thousands of people fleeing to safer areas.
More than 250 000 people in besieged eastern Aleppo city are facing dwindling supplies of food, medicine, water and fuel. All ten of eastern Aleppo’s hospitals are closed or barely functional, depriving thousands of people of access to life-saving trauma care, major surgeries, and treatment for other serious health conditions. As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, an estimated 31 500 people have been internally displaced. In the western part of the city, where civilians are facing escalating violence, hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded patients.
WHO and health partners have sufficient supplies in western Aleppo to immediately support up to 80 000 people through fixed primary health care centres, mobile teams and lifesaving interventions in supported hospitals.
From its hub in southern Turkey, WHO and partners are monitoring the displacement of people from eastern Aleppo to opposition-controlled areas in western rural Aleppo or Idleb. Health facilities are stocked with medical supplies, 10 mobile clinics are positioned near possible routes of movement, and ambulances are on standby to assist and transfer people who may require hospitalization. WHO is also using video and telephone to train first responders in besieged areas in eastern Aleppo on first aid and life support.
WHO and partners have also prepared detailed plans to evacuate the critically ill and injured out of eastern Aleppo and allow health staff and medical supplies in, once access is possible.
WHO stands alongside the Syrian people, continuing its work to ensure that all people across the country have access to essential, life-saving health care.
Related link
Attack targets health facility in Hama, Syria, 17 October 2016
