Scabies cases double amid lack of medicine in IDP camp in Syria’s Raqqa

Al-Mahmoudli IDP camp in the western countryside of Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria – North Press
Al-Mahmoudli IDP camp in the western countryside of Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria – North Press

TABQA, Syria (North Press) – A medical source in al-Mahmoudli camp in the western countryside of Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria, said on Saturday that the number of scabies cases doubled in July in addition to the spread of diseases and epidemics.

In mid-June, an official in the al-Mahmoudli camp, run by Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), warned of an epidemic disaster among IDPs in the future after recording several cases of scabies.

Adnan Saleh Mousa, administrator in the medical point in the camp, said the scabies cases doubled in July in comparison to June.

The medical point treated six cases in June and 12 in July, he added.

The medical point suffers from severe lack of medicine and treatment, which makes treating scabies cases “useless”, according to Mousa.

He noted that several cases resorted to other medical points, but a precise statistic is not available.

Malnutrition problems, gastroenteritis, and diarrhea are “many”. “We received over 200 cases in the past two months,” the administrator said.

Siham al-Uqla, director of al-Mahmoudli camp, attributed the spread of diseases and epidemics to suspension of support and food and hygiene baskets for five months.

This “deprivation” and acute shortage of medicine exacerbated the health situation “even more” and caused “extremely difficult” humanitarian conditions, she added.

The camp holds 1,814 families or 9,184 individuals, mostly from Aleppo, Homs, Hama, and Deir ez-Zor, which are controlled by Syrian government forces.

Among them are more than 4,500 children under the age of 18, and about 1,150 infants, in addition to 276 people with physical and mental disabilities, as well as 578 people with chronic diseases.

 IDPs in the al-Mahmoudli camp suffer from dire living and humanitarian conditions. Unfortunately, they have been deprived of assistance for over five months, as the al-Mawada Association has been suspended by the AANES. This is due to its violation of NGO work regulations, as well as numerous complaints that were filed against it.

By Osama Ahmad