Lebanon’s Deep Healthcare Crisis Exposed through Communicable Diseases — Global Issues

by Randa El Ozeir (beirut & toronto)Monday, July 08, 2024Inter Press Service

An uptick in food- and water-borne communicable ailments, primarily viral hepatitis A, has been registered within the nation, in keeping with current statistics launched by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Well being from numbers collected in hospitals, well being facilities and laboratories.

The hepatitis A virus (HAV) causes hepatitis A, in keeping with the World Well being Group (WHO), which causes irritation of the liver. The virus is primarily unfold when an uninfected (and unvaccinated) individual ingests meals or water that’s contaminated with the feces of an contaminated individual. The illness is intently related to unsafe water or meals, insufficient sanitation, poor private hygiene and oral-anal intercourse.”

An unrelenting, thorny financial disaster has been ravaging the nation for years and is taken into account the primary offender for the deterioration of primary services, group installations and public companies.

Dr. Abdulrahman Bizri, member of the Lebanese parliament and the parliamentary committee on public well being, professor of medication and infectious ailments on the American College of Beirut (AUB) and chairperson of the nationwide COVID vaccine committee and response, blames the collapse of Lebanese foreign money, the negligence, the intractable financial, political and livelihood crises, the mismanagement and the prevailing misconduct for the problems of stopping and containing ailments, together with communicable varieties.

“All these components led to failure in sustaining well being infrastructure, reminiscent of sewage, and offering clear water to households for direct or oblique human use by way of produce and/or livestock, which resulted within the unfold of many ailments, particularly the infectious ones transmitted by way of contaminated water, reminiscent of cholera, hepatitis A, acute diarrhea, dysentery, salmonella and different ailments.”

Workers Shortages and Price range Cuts

Authorities dysfunction, shortage of upkeep and funding and corruption slowed down the event of companies and responses to well being outbreaks.

Dr. Hussein Hassan, professor and researcher in meals security and meals manufacturing at AUB, factors out two further components which have deeply affected the general public well being scenario: the lowered funding and the exodus of medical docs.

“In hospitals, for instance, we have now workers shortages as a result of mind drain whereas we’re affected by inefficiency and ghost employees. Sadly, we even have bribery and finances cuts that delay much-needed initiatives.”

Can the Ministry of Well being (MoH), with its present form in gentle of presidency spending, lower its means to handle and defend in opposition to communicable ailments?

Bizri says that “MoH is going through an uphill battle on account of its restricted and low capacities. It depends closely on the help of the worldwide group,  for instance, WHO, UNICEF, and UNHCR, amongst others, to regulate these ailments.”

Bridging the hole requires a complete and holistic strategy to coping with the scenario based mostly on short-term and long-term steps to be taken on many official and public ranges. Dr Hassan believes that “we have to strengthen the surveillance of outbreaks, execute mass vaccination campaigns, present affected people with required provides, and enhance the water and sanitation in crowded areas by putting in purification methods and even distributing bottled water.”

Giant Presence of Syrian refugees

Poverty, poor public consciousness, insufficient schooling, a social atmosphere with minimal information and disregarding good hygiene practices contribute to communicable illness transmission.

Bizri refers back to the sizable presence of Syrian refugees who dwell in troublesome and dangerous situations, congregated in unorganized camps with inadequate dependable well being constructions or secure ingesting water. He applauded the three-way partnership between the Lebanese Ministry of Well being,  worldwide organizations like WHO and UNHCR, and the appreciable Lebanese medical non-public sector in preventing ailments threatening the nation.

“Lebanon succeeded in containing many epidemics that had the potential to prevail. The Lebanese medical physique, together with civil society, massively volunteered to regulate the unfold of those ailments. The well being sector spearheaded the efforts to handle the COVID-19 pandemic and remains to be on the forefront of preventing communicable ailments.”

Nonetheless, he has reservations concerning the “skeptical position of UNHCR in its combat in opposition to lots of the epidemics menacing Lebanon as an consequence of the concentrated existence of Syrian refugees, because it doesn’t deal transparently with the Lebanese authorities and its official establishments.”

To make sure continuity of public well being preventative and controlling packages, Hassan mapped out some long-term measures to be put in place, together with “financial and political stability, strengthening the healthcare system, investing in enhancing water provide and sewage methods, and creating and implementing upkeep packages associated to water security, significantly amongst refugees.”

He acknowledges the essential position performed by worldwide collaboration and monetary and technical help delivered by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Distrust has dented the connection between the healthcare system and the residents.

“I consider that Lebanese residents misplaced religion within the well being sector way back,” stated Bizri. “But they maintain relying on this sector, which affords reasonably priced well being and medical companies in comparison with the non-public healthcare prices in Lebanon. The nation boasts superior medical companies and coverings, however its public well being remains to be enduring a major deficit.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

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