Jul 27 2011
U.N. humanitarian agencies on Monday said areas of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, "urgently need humanitarian assistance, including medical treatment for injuries caused by the ongoing conflict in the North African country," the U.N. News Centre reports.
According to a press release from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the "health sector is under strain, having lost thousands of foreign workers at the beginning of the conflict." In addition, medical supply inventories are "rapidly running low" and the conflict has had "heavy psychosocial impact" on residents, particularly women and children, the news service notes. Concerns also exist over dwindling supplies of food, fuel and cash, the U.N. News Centre writes (7/25).
A Russian plane carrying 36.2 tons of canned milk, baby food, sugar and rice is expected to land in Tripoli on Tuesday, RIA Novosti reports. The shipment marks the fourth time Russia has sent aid to Libya, according to the news agency (7/26).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |