UN Agencies Call for Cessation of All Attacks on Health Care in Ukraine

Geneva: A number of United Nations (UN) agencies have called for an immediate cessation of all attacks on health care in Ukraine. 
 
According to them, these horrific attacks are killing and causing serious injuries to patients and health workers, destroying vital health infrastructure and forcing thousands to forgo accessing health services despite catastrophic needs.
 
"To attack the most vulnerable – babies, children, pregnant women, and those already suffering from illness and disease, and health workers risking their own lives to save lives – is an act of unconscionable cruelty," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem, and WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a joint statement on Sunday.

In Ukraine, since the start of the war, 31 attacks on health care have been documented via the WHO’s Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care (SSA).
 
These attacks have led to at least 12 deaths and 34 injuries, and affected access to and availability of essential health services. 
 
WHO is verifying further reports, as attacks continue to be reported despite the calls for protection of health care.
 
"Attacks on health care and health workers directly impact people’s ability to access essential health services – especially women, children and other vulnerable groups. We have already seen that the health care needs of pregnant women, new mothers, younger children and older people inside Ukraine are rising, while access to services is being severely limited by the violence," they stated.
 
For example, more than 4,300 births have occurred in Ukraine since the start of the war and 80,000 Ukrainian women are expected to give birth in the next three months. 
 
Oxygen and medical supplies, including for the management of pregnancy complications, are running dangerously low.
 
"The health care system in Ukraine is clearly under significant strain, and its collapse would be a catastrophe," they stated.
 
"Every effort must be made to prevent this from happening," they added.
 
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