In an impassioned address to the UN General Assembly, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the crisis an “acid test for the United Nations and for its member states”.
“This organisation was established to foster peace in our world. If you as member states of the United Nations will not or cannot stop this bloodshed, then we must ask, ‘What is the United Nations for?’” he said.
“Resolutions are not enough,” he added. “You must act and you must act now.”
Here’s Tedros’s overview of the deteriorating healthcare situation in Gaza:
- Premature babies dying as life support systems shut down.
- More than 2,000 patients with cancer; 1,000 with kidney disease; 50,000 with cardiovascular disease and 60,000 with diabetes are at risk amid treatment interruption.
- Up to 200 women are giving birth every day in the “worst imaginable” conditions.
- Increasing numbers of respiratory and skin infections, as well as malnutrition.
- Cases of acute watery diarrhea “as the sewage system breaks down and people are forced to defecate in the open”.
“There are no words to describe the horror. The people of Gaza need our support, your support, now,” he said.
Source: AlJazeera
