Deterioration of the health situation in a camp for Afrin IDPs
Aleppo – North-Press Agency – Dejla Khalil
The Afrins region’s IDPs in Sardam camp, near the village of Tal Suwsein in northern Aleppo countryside, suffer from increased diseases due to high temperatures in light of necessary medicines shortage.
Suad Sabri, a displaced woman from Afrin who lives in the camp, complained to North-Press the lack of medicines and doctors to treat her daughter, saying, “There is a great shortage of medicines at Kurdish Red Crescent point, and our poor living situation prevent us from purchasing medicines from pharmacies,” explaining that the health situation in the camp is very difficult.
Fatima Ali, another resident of the camp, said that the spread of dust and high temperatures cause children to get sick, stressing that she will take all the difficulties until she returns to Afrin.
While Abdo Adnan, a patient at the Kurdish Red Crescent point, had a different opinion, noting that the services provided by the center were good.
Reasons
Sakina Arabo, a nurse at the Kurdish Red Crescent point, told North-Press that enteritis, food poisoning, skin diseases, and insect bites such as scorpions, are the most common diseases in the camp that accompany the summer season.
Arabo explained that the high temperatures, dust, lack of fans and food coolers are the main causes of many diseases.
Moreover, most of the women in Sardam camp suffer from heatstroke as a result of their work for hours while transferring water from reservoirs to the camp, and according to the nature of the area that is mostly dry due to the absence of trees, insects are spreading numerously like scorpions, increasing the number of exposures to their bites.
Lack of medicines
Arabo pointed to the poor possibilities and acute shortage of medicines and medical staff in the Kurdish Red Crescent center indicating that most of the medicines provided by organizations are almost expired, and that critical cases in the camp are being transferred to “Afarin Hospital” in northern Aleppo countryside.
The nurse added, “The Afrin IDPs cannot buy medicines that are not available in the center due to their poor living condition, so the patient remains without medication and treatment,” noting that the Kurdish Red Crescent point is treating between 90-100 pathological condition per day.
Sardam camp is the second largest camp, which is inhabited by the displaced people of Afrin in northern countryside of Aleppo, with approximately 3,500 residents spread over about 750 tents.
It is noteworthy that Turkey, along with its armed Syrian opposition groups, launched a military attack on the Afrin region on 20 January last year, ended with its control over the area after nearly two months of fierce battles against the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
As a result, about 350 thousand people were displaced from their region to the northern countryside of Aleppo.