Media reports warned of further deterioration of the health situation for tens of thousands of people fleeing Deir Ezzor province due to spread of diseases and lack of medical services, especially among those who now live in IDPs camps in southern rural Hasaka.
Arabi 21 newspaper said that it received reports from local medical sources about the outbreak of contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, and leishmaniasis.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Deir Ezzor have been displaced by intensified fighting between ISIS on one hand and regime forces and militias of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the other. The IDPs now live in camps in the barren desert.
Activists reported 17 cases of tuberculosis in Sadd IDPs camp in rural Al-Hasakah, mostly among people who came from Deir Ezzor. They attributed the outbreak of the disease to the consumption of contaminated water, poor hygiene, and lack of health care in the camp.
Activists in rural Hasaka said that last week two children died of tuberculosis in the Sadd camp which is run by SDF militias. They confirmed that dozens of the residents of the camp caught the disease.
Meanwhile, minister of health in the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) Mohammad Firas al-Jundi on Sunday said that SIG is providing medical care to civilians fleeing Deir Ezzor and arriving in the liberated areas to prevent further spread of the diseases. Dozens of cases of polio were reported in the town of Mayadeen in rural Deir Ezzor in March 2017, Al-Jundi added.
Al-Jundi told Arabi 21 that all children fleeing Deir Ezzor to the liberated areas in eastern and northern rural Aleppo are given anti-polio vaccines. He noted that the Ministry is carrying out vaccination campaigns against polio in all the liberated areas.
In March 2017, the World Health Organization confirmed the existence of at least 17 cases of polio in Syria, warning of the possible return of the disease which threatens millions of children. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
