BEIRUT — Child vaccination rates in Lebanon have dropped by
more than 30 percent, compounding a health crisis marked by drug shortages and
an exodus of trained professionals, the UN said Wednesday.
اضافة اعلان
“The critical drop
in vaccination rates has left children vulnerable to potentially deadly
diseases such as measles, diphtheria and pneumonia,” the UN children’s agency
UNICEF said in a new report titled “A worsening health crisis for children”.
“Routine vaccination of children has dropped by 31
per cent when rates already were worryingly low, creating a large pool of
unprotected children vulnerable to disease and its impact.”
Since 2019, Lebanon has been grappling with an
unprecedented financial crisis that the World Bank says is of a scale usually
associated with wars.
The currency has lost more than 90 percent of its
value and more than 80 percent of the population now lives below the poverty
line.
“Many families cannot even afford the cost of
transportation to take their children to a health care center,” UNICEF
representative Ettie Higgins said in a statement.
Between April and October 2021, the number of
children who could not access health care rose from 28 per cent to 34 per cent,
according to the UNICEF report.
With the government too poor to afford imports of
basic commodities such as medicines, many are struggling to source lifesaving
drugs, including those used to treat chronic illnesses.
According to the UNICEF report, more than 50 per
cent of families were unable to obtain the medicines they needed and at least
58 per cent of hospitals reported drug shortages.
Making matters worse, the financial crash has
sparked an exodus of healthcare professionals.
According to UNICEF, 40 percent of doctors and 30 percent of
midwives have left the country.
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