Red Cross presses for international action to protect medics targeted in war zones

From Libya to Afghanistan, medical workers are now facing death threats from relatives of patients wounded in the fighting

that rebel troops besieged hunting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in the Libyan city of Sirte, in the last days of the uprising, Dr. Ali Mohamed al-Khamli took a dangerous decision. The surgeon Libyan aged 26, decided to stay at the Ibn Sina hospital, knowing that their humanitarian gesture meant he was risking his life. But he realized he could face death at the hands of parents of patients.

Al-Khamli and his colleagues tried to save the lives of those injured in the most difficult circumstances. "The water tank in our hospital was damaged in the fighting, and medical supplies are not received," he said. "At one point we had to use candles and lamps of our mobile phones to work on patients, because we had no fuel for our generator. The worst, however, occurred when our operating room was hit by rockets and destroyed. "

For the next 12 hours, no surgery was possible despite the growing number of wounded. The bodies were handed over as well, but there was no room for storage. Al-Khamli continued somehow, just eat and sleep only three or four hours a day.

In such circumstances tense and desperate families turned his arms against doctors, willing to do anything to ensure that your child, mother or father was treated first. The surgeons were threatened that if the patient died, they pay with their lives. "I learned that other rules again during the war," said al-Khamli.

But he continued, trying to work within their own medical ethics. "Despite the lack of respect shown by some people with guns, physicians must meet the needs of patients."

Elijaafari Dr. Mustafa, 25, returned to Libya from studios in London during the conflict and operating in hospitals in the field with a dozen other young doctors on the front lines Bani Walid and Sabha. He, too, found a normal range between attention and the conflict could simply disappear. "We had to establish clear rules in the field hospitals, while people arrived with their weapons," he said. "People must understand that we were there to heal the wounds, not cause."

In Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and other countries devastated by conflict, the international standards and agreements on the sanctity of hospitals and medical centers are eroded as never before. TV footage has risks that health personnel most common visible. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched a major campaign to persuade governments and international organizations working to protect health care in situations of conflict and promote respect for medical ethics.

• Monday, a symposium of experts held in London, Health Hazard, with the support of the British Medical Association, World Medical Association and British Red Cross. They insist that international action.

"The goal is to deliver safe and effective health care and impartial in an armed conflict and other emergencies," said Robin Coupland, ICRC health adviser to the campaign. "This is not a new problem. We are increasingly aware that to modern types of conflict that we see in North Africa and Middle East. Insurgents stop ambulances and the armed men enter the hospital looking for people. Health is involved in the tactics. "

A study of 16 countries by the ICRC has identified 655 attacks against personnel or health facilities over two years. This affects not only treating the injured, but the health of civilian men, women and children. Coupland cites the bombing of a medical graduation ceremony in 2009 in Mogadishu that killed 14 medical students, three doctors and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. It was a tragedy for those affected and a disaster for Somalia. An estimated 150,000 patient visits were lost.

threats to health personnel and the dangers they face are some of the main reasons why the world has not yet been able to eradicate polio. It is now endemic in only three countries, but one of the biggest problems is the treatment of children at the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The World Health Organization estimates that 400,000 children in this country are denied vaccination. There were 76 cases of polio in Afghanistan last year, tripling the previous year's quota. This is a threat to the global fight against the disease because, as people move, so it extends polio.
Jessica Barry, who works for the ICRC in Kabul, said the pressure on the major hospitals in Afghanistan, Kandahar Mirwais, is exacerbated by the lack of care in rural areas, forcing patients to go long distances to the city. "In rural areas where there is fighting or insecurity, local clinics may be working partly but not entirely," he said. "Midwives may not be able to reach clinics. Doctors and nurses are too afraid to face on the roads to get to clinics."

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