About 10 million Ukrainians, nearly a third of the population left in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, suffer from mental health problems and “four million have moderate to severe symptoms,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“During my meeting yesterday (Thursday) with the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, she told me that all (citizens) have become psychologists”said the European Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Hans Kluge, at a press conference in Zhitomir, Ukraine.
The WHO has requested $240 million this year to fund war-related humanitarian operations ($160 million for Ukrainian territory and $80 million for countries hosting Ukrainian refugees).
With this campaign, WHO expects to provide humanitarian assistance to 13.8 million people, compared to the 8.5 million people who received this type of assistance in 2022.
The WHO official, who is making his fifth visit to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s latest invasion in February last year, stressed that attention “to the mental and psychosocial situation” is one of the organization’s priorities, as are rehabilitation programs for war wounded or victims of armed attacks.
The European Director of WHO notes that “despite the fatigue, stress and exhaustion of health workers, the health system remains intact”.
The data Kluge provided on mental health during today’s remote press conference, cited by the Spanish agency EFE, is still not listed on the WHO portal, whose latest report on Ukraine is dated February 15.
On the other hand, WHO representative in Ukraine, Jarno Habicht, added from Poltava, where he is located, that the health system is “generally” working well, despite “greater difficulties” in the areas controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces. have been restored, such as in regions near Kiev or Kharkiv.
WHO officials say Russia has attacked nearly 800 health facilities, saying these are “actions that constitute war crimes under international law,” despite Habicht saying “20 percent of the infrastructure has been rebuilt.”
The statements of the two WHO representatives were remotely supervised by the Spanish news agency EFE.
Jarno Habicht also said that since last October electrical infrastructure failures have “sometimes” made it difficult for healthcare, which has been “unavailable” for weeks in some parts of Ukraine.
Kluge indicates that one of the main concerns at the moment is the difficulty of providing Ukrainian citizens with access to “common treatment” due to economic and logistical problems.
“Our surveys show that one in ten people have problems accessing medicines, due to a lack of supplies or because the nearest pharmacies have been destroyed or damaged. A third of people admit that they cannot afford (medicines)”noted Kluge.
The WHO European official did not provide data on the effects of the conflict on the incidence of infectious diseases in Ukraine, but recalled that there had been previous problems.
“Before the war, the rates of tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS were alarming. The conflict has undoubtedly not improved the situation”he claimed.
In recent months, WHO has helped set up tuberculosis and HIV monitoring centers at the regional level to monitor the incidence of these diseases.
The war also affected vaccination campaigns, as only 11% of vaccine doses against SARS CoV-2 (four million out of a total of 35 million) reached Ukraine after the invasion of Russia.
Source: DN
