At least nine people are dead, and 16 injured amid an increasing number of attacks on health care in Ukraine, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
WHO defines attacks on health care as any instances of physical or verbal violence, and obstruction that interferes with the provision of health services. In Ukraine, the U.N. agency has so far verified 16 attacks in large cities and areas of conflict since the conflict broke out on Feb. 24.
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Verified attacks on health care saw a significant increase over the weekend. On Saturday, WHO said it has verified six attacks on health care in the country that left six people dead and 11 injured.
WHO did not give specifics on where the attacks took place, and doesn’t specify on its database who the perpetrators are behind the attacks. Over the past two weeks however, there’ve been multiple reports of hospitals being damaged after being hit by shelling.
The attacks on health care in Ukraine include direct attacks against health facilities or hospitals, and the use of health infrastructure such as ambulances for other purposes not related to health care, said Dr. Catherine Smallwood, COVID-19 incident manager for WHO Europe, during Tuesday’s press briefing.
She said WHO will continue to update the number of attacks against health care in the country, which she said have been “increasing quite rapidly over the past few days.”
Dr. Hans Henri Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said the U.N. agency “strongly condemns” the attacks, saying that “health workers, hospitals and other medical facilities must never be a target at any time, including during crisis and conflicts.”
WHO has raised concerns about depleting medical supplies in the country, particularly in health facilities in eastern Ukraine where there’s heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces. A key concern has been the depleting supply of medical oxygen, but also other necessities such as personal protective equipment for health workers, those needed for surgical operations such as anesthetics and blood, as well as access to electricity and water.
Aid organizations have been calling for a safe humanitarian corridor amid the war. Kluge said WHO is keeping “all diplomatic channels open” but it’s also looking at all possible ways to get medical supplies to affected areas now.
Last week, WHO announced the first shipment of medical supplies to arrive in Poland, and said on Tuesday that two shipments containing 76 metric tons of trauma and emergency health supplies, as well as freezers, refrigerators, ice packs, and cool boxes are in transit in Ukraine. Further shipments of 500 oxygen concentrators are also on their way, according to Kluge. But he also said more is needed, including health kits to cover the needs of people with noncommunicable diseases.
Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesperson currently in Ukraine, said in the same briefing that five metric tonnes of surgical supplies were dispatched to and have arrived in Kyiv in cooperation with Ukrainian health authorities. He didn’t specify how that was made possible, only saying “we look into all possible modalities to do that” while reiterating calls for unhindered access for humanitarian assistance in the country.
Médecins Sans Frontières also said that it has received confirmation that its medical supplies arrived in Kyiv on Sunday and were received by the Ministry of Health. The supplies include surgical and trauma kits, as well as basic necessities for intensive care units, emergency rooms, and surgical operating theaters and “are now being sent on to hospitals in the city and other towns further east where the numbers of people wounded is rising and supplies are running out quickly,” according to a news release. More will arrive in the country in the coming days, it added.
Concerns over mental health, sexual violence
WHO has also raised concerns on the impact of the conflict on people’s mental health. Dr. Smallwood said 1 in 5 people affected by conflict will need mental health support.
WHO has been scaling up mental health support both within Ukraine and in neighboring countries experiencing an influx of refugees, she said, adding that WHO has deployed mental health experts to surrounding countries, but also through its Ukraine country office.
“We're also bringing in people with direct experience in Ukraine, having worked in Ukraine, Ukrainians themselves, to help local authorities tailor the mental health support directly to those refugees,” she said.
“This needs to continue and be scaled up over time, the mental health needs will only grow as the conflict continues,” she added.
WHO underscored the importance of providing mental and psychosocial support for both men and women affected by the war, as well as children and health workers.
“We see it in times of no conflict where we have high [incidence] of prevalence of suicide among men, and depression among women. I think it's important that our mental health and psychosocial support is prepared to address these differences,” said Isabel Yordi Aguirre, technical officer for gender and health at WHO Europe.
WHO also said women need to have access to sexual and reproductive health services in Ukraine, and in countries where they have fled to.
Approximately 1,000 live births per week are anticipated in neighboring countries amid the UN Refugee Agency’s projections of 4 million refugees from Ukraine by July. And the health cluster in Ukraine has raised concerns on the risk of unsafe deliveries happening among this population too.
UNFPA estimates that 80,000 women will give birth in the next three months in Ukraine, where maternal mortality was already high — nearly 10 times that of Poland — even before the war. The U.N. agency also raised concerns on women and girls’ increased risk of sexual and physical violence and abuse, citing a 2019 UNFPA study that showed some 75% of women in Ukraine reported some form of violence since the age of 15, and 1 in 3 have experienced physical or sexual violence.
"The UNFPA estimation … means that those women may have moved from having a life-changing experience to a life-threatening experience and may require emergency obstetric care," Aguirre said.
Update, March 10, 2022: This article has been updated to add reports on hospitals damaged by shelling.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
