Dr. Ahmed Shadoul,
We are writing to inform you that the public hospitals in Aden are currently struggling to cope with the influx of wounded because they are facing a long-standing severe shortage in medicine and supplies.
We have been in contact with Dr. AbdulNasser A. Alwali (967 73 379 1544), who has recently been appointed as Chairman of the Medical Committee in Aden, and he describes the health situation in Basheeb Military Hospital, Al Joumhourah Teaching Hospital, Al Sadyakka Hospital and May 22 Hospital as catastrophic. They are currently overwhelmed with patients, which have far exceeded their capacity since the beginning of this crisis. They are under staffed, as the danger from indiscriminate snipers have restricted the staff’s ability to safely reach the hospitals from their homes. More disconcerting, there has been no officials from the Ministry of Public Health or non-governmental organization to assess their current situation and provide them the needed relief.
From the onset of the crisis in Yemen (March 19th) up to the date of writing this letter, approximately 158.6 and 1.7 tons of essential medicine and supplies has been delivered to Sana’a and Aden, respectively. However, according to the report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (15 Apr 2015), part of the 92 ton UNICEF shipment, which was airlifted to Sana’a on April 10th and April 14th, are intended for Aden "although access by road and sea is currently extremely difficult.” And this is a problem because the portal city is currently entrapping 1 million victims at the center of the worst fighting. Furthermore, we have been sent a report, which I have attached, stating that they have been allocating their quickly depleting supplies to locations that span throughout the southern region of Yemen, as they are also facing severe shortages.
It is our sincere hope that you will look into this matter and if there is anything that you would like us to do, we are more then prepared to help.
Thank you for your time.
Omran Alsalahi M.D. candidate at Eastern Virginia Medical School M.S. in Biomedical Sciences Graduate Certificate in Global Medicine
Received: Apr 19th, 2015
Dear Omran,
Thank you so much for writing to me and for offering help. I cannot agree more with you regarding the devastating situation in Yemen in general and Aden in particular. On top of this, the mass population movement and IDPs continued to be a threat for the health sector in terms of expected disease outbreaks and epidemics. Shortage of water is another hurdle. Electricity cut is affecting the health facilities and the cold chain to maintain a reasonable temperature for the vaccine and we can go on and on. However even before the recent crisis, we in WHO continued and will continue to support the stretched health system to maintain functioning.
WHO has a team of ten staff and a suboffice in Aden. We were supplying all the drugs, medical equipment, supplies and blood bags and reagents with all their needs during the previous time and will continue. We were even providing ICRC and MSF with their medical needs. This support is coordinated through Dr El Khidir, director of health Aden and directors of hospitals. It is not only Aden, we continued to address the needs in Abyan, Lahj and Aldalea and even Almokalla.
Sir, we do have our warehouse there, covering the whole south. We recently manage to prestock our warehouse with additional medicines, supplies and equipment. However it is becoming very difficult to maintain prompt timely support specially with transportation.
Whatever efforts being done will not be able to satisfy the growing needs of the health system and the staff who are definitely over stretched and exhausted. So I look forward for your support as diasporas to mobile further resources and professionals to further boost efforts on the ground
I am copying here Dr Mohamed Kolaise, WHO Emergency Officer and Dr Nasreen Sayani,WHO Operation Officer who are leading our teams there for further support. They can be contacted at any time
Let us pray for Yemen and the people of Yemen
Best regards,
Dr Ahmed Shadoul
Thank you so much for writing to me and for offering help. I cannot agree more with you regarding the devastating situation in Yemen in general and Aden in particular. On top of this, the mass population movement and IDPs continued to be a threat for the health sector in terms of expected disease outbreaks and epidemics. Shortage of water is another hurdle. Electricity cut is affecting the health facilities and the cold chain to maintain a reasonable temperature for the vaccine and we can go on and on. However even before the recent crisis, we in WHO continued and will continue to support the stretched health system to maintain functioning.
WHO has a team of ten staff and a suboffice in Aden. We were supplying all the drugs, medical equipment, supplies and blood bags and reagents with all their needs during the previous time and will continue. We were even providing ICRC and MSF with their medical needs. This support is coordinated through Dr El Khidir, director of health Aden and directors of hospitals. It is not only Aden, we continued to address the needs in Abyan, Lahj and Aldalea and even Almokalla.
Sir, we do have our warehouse there, covering the whole south. We recently manage to prestock our warehouse with additional medicines, supplies and equipment. However it is becoming very difficult to maintain prompt timely support specially with transportation.
Whatever efforts being done will not be able to satisfy the growing needs of the health system and the staff who are definitely over stretched and exhausted. So I look forward for your support as diasporas to mobile further resources and professionals to further boost efforts on the ground
I am copying here Dr Mohamed Kolaise, WHO Emergency Officer and Dr Nasreen Sayani,WHO Operation Officer who are leading our teams there for further support. They can be contacted at any time
Let us pray for Yemen and the people of Yemen
Best regards,
Dr Ahmed Shadoul
