Patients dying as conflict prevents supplies reaching Tigray hospitals (The Guardian)
Posted: 05 Mar 2022, 11:13
Medics unable to keep babies alive, says doctor, as Ethiopia’s civil war creates desperate shortages of drugs, oxygen, fuel and food
People in Tigray are dying due to a lack of oxygen and medicines, a doctor at the region’s largest hospital has said, as medics struggle to care for the sick amid frequent electricity blackouts and fuel shortages.
As the 16-month conflict between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian government forces drags on, the isolated northern region of 5.5 million people continues to suffer under what the UN has called a de facto blockade.
Staff at the Ayder referral hospital in Mekelle, the regional capital, said they were losing patients who would have otherwise lived. “Patients die. Every day we hear about patients dying because of a lack of oxygen, a lack of this drug, that drug,” the doctor, who could not be named for security reasons, told the Guardian.
Speaking during a rare moment of internet connectivity, he said the wider region was suffering similar problems. That morning, he said, doctors from the northern town of Adwa had told him their hospital, which had “survived looting and destruction” during the early months of the war, was now struggling to keep infants alive.
“They said: patients are dying because of a lack of oxygen, a lack of electricity and they cannot keep the babies breathing. The machines are failing. So they were asking for help but we told them we cannot do anything,” he said.
The World Health Organization has said that, from July until last month, it had been unable to get medical supplies into Tigray, and although some have trickled in, doctors and aid workers said they were nowhere near enough to meet the needs of a population deprived of essentials for months.
Continue reading https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... -hospitals
People in Tigray are dying due to a lack of oxygen and medicines, a doctor at the region’s largest hospital has said, as medics struggle to care for the sick amid frequent electricity blackouts and fuel shortages.
As the 16-month conflict between Tigrayan forces and Ethiopian government forces drags on, the isolated northern region of 5.5 million people continues to suffer under what the UN has called a de facto blockade.
Staff at the Ayder referral hospital in Mekelle, the regional capital, said they were losing patients who would have otherwise lived. “Patients die. Every day we hear about patients dying because of a lack of oxygen, a lack of this drug, that drug,” the doctor, who could not be named for security reasons, told the Guardian.
Speaking during a rare moment of internet connectivity, he said the wider region was suffering similar problems. That morning, he said, doctors from the northern town of Adwa had told him their hospital, which had “survived looting and destruction” during the early months of the war, was now struggling to keep infants alive.
“They said: patients are dying because of a lack of oxygen, a lack of electricity and they cannot keep the babies breathing. The machines are failing. So they were asking for help but we told them we cannot do anything,” he said.
The World Health Organization has said that, from July until last month, it had been unable to get medical supplies into Tigray, and although some have trickled in, doctors and aid workers said they were nowhere near enough to meet the needs of a population deprived of essentials for months.
Continue reading https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... -hospitals
