Health ministry dismisses as fabricated EC statement on health situation in Syria

Damascus, (SANA) Ministry of Health has lambasted as a new fabrication a recent statement by the European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid on the health situation in Syria.

Earlier, the European Commission for International Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid has claimed in a statement that 200, 000 Syrian citizens have died in Syria since the crisis began due to a spread of diseases and lacking healthcare and medicine. Moreover, the statement said that vaccination campaigns in Syria have stopped which, it claimed, prompted a spread of polio and measles.

In a statement issued on Thursday which SANA received a copy of, the ministry condemned the EC statement which it described as “yet another fabrication that goes too far in spreading lies and distorting facts.”

Such statements would serve to impede the ministry’s efforts to get health services to citizens despite unprecedented challenges besetting the healthcare sector in Syria, added the statement.

The health sector in Syria is grappling with manifold challenges due to incessant terrorist attacks against it, coupled with a stifling economic embargo which saw, among others, the EU severing funds for having 33 hospitals equipped that were due to be put into service in 2013.

The statement dismissed statements alleging that a national vaccination program that has been on in Syria since the onset of the crisis has stopped, affirming that the program is still “working at full capacity” with vaccinations against 11 diseases included.

The statement reminded that Syria has been declared free of polio in 1995 and was on its way to wipe out measles before a case was confirmed by the end of last year which, it said, was established to be of a Pakistani origin.

Since the first polio case was confirmed, said the statement, the ministry has announced a strict plan to have the disease uprooted, launching so far six national immunization campaigns, the latest of which turned out to be a raging success as up to 2, 900,000 children under five of age have been immunized.

No new polio cases have been registered since January 21, said the statement.

Commenting on the Commission’s claims about a shortfall in healthcare services and medicine, the ministry put at 45 million the number of free-of-charge health services provided to citizens in 2013.

The ministry reiterated in the statement its keen interest in meeting the health needs of citizens amid the current conditions, playing down the effect of such biased statements which, it said, will make it more determined to carry out its duties “with stronger vigor.”

M. Ismael