People hold funeral prayers near the bodies of Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack, amid Israel-Hamas clashes in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 21, 2024. Photo courtesy: Reuters
More than 1,000 women and children in need of medical care will soon be evacuated from Gaza to Europe, the head of the World Health Organization’s Europe branch said in comments published Monday, October 21, 2024.
Israel, which occupies the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, “has committed to 1,000 more medical evacuations within the next months to the EU,” Hans Kluge said in an interview. AFPHe said the evacuation would be facilitated by WHO – the UN health agency – and the European countries involved.
On Thursday, October 17, UN investigators said Israel was deliberately targeting health facilities in Gaza, and accused the country of “crimes against humanity”, killing and torturing medical personnel there.
Rick Pepperkorn, WHO representative to the occupied Palestinian territories, said in May that about 10,000 people needed to be evacuated from Gaza for urgent medical care.
WHO Europe has already facilitated 600 medical evacuations from Gaza to seven European countries since the latest war began in October 2023. “If we had not kept the dialogue (open) this would never have happened,” Kluge said. “The same is (true) for Ukraine,” he said. “I keep dialogue (open) with all partners.
“Now 15,000 HIV-AIDS patients in (Ukraine’s) occupied territory Donbass are receiving HIV-AIDS drugs,” the 55-year-old Belgian said in English, stressing the importance of “not politicizing health.”
“The most important medicine is peace,” he said, adding that health workers should be allowed to do their work in conflict areas.
‘Displeasure every time’
According to WHO, nearly 2,000 attacks on health centers have been recorded in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022. “There may be almost a kind of acceptance but it should lead to outrage every time,” he said. “We will always condemn this in the strongest possible terms.”
Kluge expressed concern ahead of Ukraine’s Third Winter War.
“Eighty percent of the civilian energy grid has been damaged or destroyed. We saw it in hospitals, surgeons working with lamps over their heads,” he said. “It’s going to be a very, very hard” winter.
Despite the strain on Europe’s health care systems, he said the 53 countries that make up the WHO European Region – which also includes Central Asian countries – were able to come together to prepare for future pandemics. “In Europe, we did our homework,” he said.
Global pandemic treaty?
“We need an epidemic treaty globally, because even if we do our part, we will never be able to stop insects entering our continent.”
A European strategy for the pandemic will be presented on 31 October.
At the same time, WHO is urging its members to “manage and prepare for the next crisis while ensuring the continuity of essential basic health services” to avoid another “breakdown” similar to what happened during the Covid pandemic.
He said that ensuring the safety of national health care systems is important and should be a priority.
“At least 25 out of 53 countries experienced at least one major health emergency event large enough to test the country’s security during the past five years,” he said.
The pandemic has left its mark on Europeans, which Kluge hopes to erase during his next mandate.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has set us back two years in terms of non-communicable diseases,” he said, calling on countries to double down on diagnosis and treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, uterine and cervical cancer testing, and vaccinations. The need arose.
Additionally, Kluge said he also wants to address worrying trends such as the health of young people and growing inequalities between men and women.
“This is very clear. We saw that cases of anxiety and depression increased by 25 per cent due to the lockdown during Covid-19,” he lamented.
“Twenty-six percent of women between the ages of 15 and 49 in my area have experienced intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence at least once in their lifetime,” she said.
Kluge has led WHO Europe since February 2020 and is expected to be re-elected at the end of October.
published – October 21, 2024 04:02 PM IST