Kawthar defeats tuberculosis: improving access to diagnosis and treatment in rural areas in Syria
27 March 2019, Damascus, Syria ‒ 35-year-old Kawthar is one of the tens of thousands of Syrians who fled intense fighting in Afrin city, north-west Syria last year. She and her family now live in a camp for displaced persons in northern rural Aleppo. In late 2018, a team from the World Health Organization visited the camp to screen people suspected of having tuberculosis (TB). Kawthar was one of several people confirmed as having the disease.
Kawthar was pregnant when she was first diagnosed. She refused to take her medicines because she was worried that they might harm her unborn baby. Health care workers explained to her that her condition was life-threatening and, if left untreated, would only get worse. Kawthar agreed, with some trepidation, to undergo the lengthy treatment for the sake of her family.
Aynaa's story: treating severe acute malnutrition in Syria
21 March 2019 – Baby Aynaa was only three months old when she and her mother fled from conflict-torn Deir-ez-Zor to Al-Hol camp in the neighbouring governorate of Al-Hasakeh. They endured a week-long journey in freezing temperatures and driving rain, with little food or water to sustain them. By the time she reached the safety of the camp, Aynaa was severely malnourished and close to death. Her weight had plummeted to 2.7 kgs and she was comatose.
Unexploded mines pose daily risk for people in northern Syria
6 March 2019 - Um Hassan, from rural Aleppo, was collecting truffles in the countryside to sell in local markets. At the end of a long day of backbreaking work in harsh winter conditions, she and her children climbed into a crowded lorry to begin their journey home. Half-way through their trip, the lorry drove over an unexploded mine. Um Hassan’s 10-year old daughter Lolo was killed instantly and two of her other children were seriously injured.
WHO concerned over critical health situation in Al-Hol camp, Al-Hasakeh
31 January 2019, Damascus, Syria – The World Health Organization is extremely concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Al-Hol camp in Al-Hasakeh governorate, and calls on all parties to the conflict to provide unhindered humanitarian access to people in need of life-saving aid.
Over the last 2 months, approximately 23 000 people, mainly women and children fleeing hostilities in rural areas of neighbouring Deir-ez-Zor, have arrived in the camp. Many of them have walked or travelled in open trucks for several days and nights in the bitterly cold winter weather. Their journeys have been delayed en route by lengthy security screening procedures in an exposed field, and their ordeal has not ended on arrival to the camp. Thousands of new arrivals have been forced to spend several nights in the camp’s open-air reception and screening areas, without tents, blankets or heating. At least 29 children and newborns are reported to have died over the past 8 weeks, mainly from hypothermia, while travelling to the camp or shortly after arrival.