The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, has released $10
million in response to the urgent need for food, water,
shelter and other lifesaving provisions following this
week’s devastating earthquakes and aftershocks in
Afghanistan.
“This is the latest crisis to expose
the cost of shrinking resources on vital humanitarian
work,” said the UN relief chief, Tom Fletcher, in a
statement on Friday.
He stressed that more funding is
needed to assist the thousands of Afghans who have lost
their livelihoods in the catastrophe. The UN’s Emergency
Fund is now accepting donations to aid
Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has sent emergency
relief items worth $4.5 million to assist over 5,000
households in Kunar and Jalalabad, said UN Spokesperson
Stéphane Dujarric.
Pregnancies at risk
The UN
agency for sexual and reproductive health, UNFPA, estimates that more
than 11,600 pregnant women have been impacted by the
earthquake. According to UNFPA, Afghanistan already has one
of the highest maternal mortality rates in the Asia Pacific
area.
“For pregnant women, a natural disaster can turn
an already challenging time into a life-threatening
crisis,” said Kwabena Asante-Ntiamoah, the UNFPA’s
representative in Afghanistan.
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“We are on the
ground, delivering essential care to ensure safe deliveries
and prevent further loss of life,” she added.
In
addition to deploying an emergency response, UNFPA continues
to operate some twenty health clinics in the
region.
Details on the UN appeal for survivors of the
earthquake can be found
here.
Sexual Violence crisis deepens in
Haiti
Gender-based violence (GBV) has reached
alarming levels in Haiti as criminal gangs tighten their
grip on the Caribbean nation, with more than 6,200 incidents
reported
between January and July by service providers
there.
Rapes accounted for nearly half the cases, with
armed groups carrying out 62 per cent of them, according to
the data gathered by UN aid coordination office,
OCHA.
While mostly affecting adult women, “one in
seven survivors is a child, a girl under 18,” said UN
Spokesperson Stéphane
Dujarric, briefing reporters in New York on
Friday.
More than half of the incidents involved
internally displaced people, yet only one in four rape
survivors accessed care within the crucial 72-hour window,
he added.
Deep-seated stigma
The lack of
access reflects long-standing stigma associated with GBV in
Haiti, the country’s insecurity, the weak referral
systems, and chiefly, the lack of health facilities in the
country.
To address this, UN agencies and their
humanitarian partners have assisted nearly 20,000 people, OCHA
reported in an update on Friday. This includes medical care,
psychological support, legal aid, dignity kits, emergency
shelter, and case management.
Issues persist as
services are predominantly concentrated in the country’s
capital, Port-au-Prince, and in the Artibonite Department,
whereas other regions, including Centre and the Grand Sud,
systematically receive less support.
“Out of the $19
million required for prevention and response to gender-based
violence in Haiti, we’ve only received 18 per cent,”
said Mr. Dujarric.
WHO adds breakthrough cancer and
diabetes medicines to essential list
Marking an
important step in improving equitable access to life-saving
health products worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) has
updated its model lists of essential medicines to
include new treatments for cancer, diabetes and
obesity.
The revised
lists, released Friday, guide procurement and coverage
decisions in more than 150 countries.
They now include
523 medicines for adults and 374 for children, following the
addition of 20 new adult treatments – 15 for youngsters.
Other additions cover cystic fibrosis, psoriasis,
haemophilia and blood disorders.
“The new editions
of essential medicines lists mark a significant step toward
expanding access to new medicines with proven clinical
benefits and with high potential for global public health
impact,” said Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant
Director-General for Health Systems, Access and
Data.
Cancer, a global priority
Cancer remains
a global priority and is still responsible for nearly 10
million deaths a year. WHO has added immune checkpoint
inhibitors – powerful therapies that help the immune
system target cancer cells, including pembrolizumab,
atezolizumab and cemiplimab, for certain metastatic cancers,
citing evidence they can extend survival.
Diabetes and
obesity, affecting more than 800 million and 1 billion
people worldwide, respectively, are now recognized as urgent
global threats.
To address them, WHO added a group of
medicines to help not only lower blood sugar but also
support patients with type 2 diabetes.
The UN health
agency stressed that high prices remain a barrier and urged
countries to prioritize patients most in need, promote
generic competition and integrate access into primary
care.
Pakistan’s monsoon flood-hit communities face
more misery: WMO
Monsoon flooding in northern
Pakistan has impacted 1.5 million people and killed nearly
900 people. Hundreds of thousands need assistance after
torrential rains triggered flashfloods, landslides and
destruction.
The UN Secretary-General has expressed
his sadness at the scale of the emergency, while UN agencies
and partners are working closely with Pakistan to identify
needs and address gaps in the disaster
response.
According to the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO), there is no
immediate respite in sight.
Associated with this,
heavy rains could generate flash floods in streams in
Kashmir, Islamabad, Rabindi, north-east Punjab and Swat, and
cause slow-moving but devastating urban flooding in
low-lying areas, WMO said.
Glacier effect
The
UN agency noted that high temperatures causing glacial melt
had made the situation worse.
Earlier this summer,
Pakistan climate experts issued repeated warnings about
glacial lake outbursts.
The most recent alert on 30
August warned that temperatures were much higher than
normal, potentially accelerating the amount of glacier water
running
downstream.
