A total stop to hostilities in the Middle East is needed to halt a \u201chealth crisis unfolding in real time\u201d, the World Health Organization\u2019s chief in the region has said.<\/p>\n
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities must be treated as \u201csafe havens\u201d, urged Dr Hanan Balkhy<\/a>, the WHO\u2019s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean.<\/p>\n She said officials were updating guidance and preparing in case of any impact on nuclear sites, and that attacks on water desalination plants would be \u201ca disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n The region\u2019s 22 countries and territories include Iran and the Gulf states, as well as Gaza, Sudan, Afghanistan<\/a> and Pakistan.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation has been quite difficult for some time, but what we\u2019re seeing today is just an actual regional health crisis unfolding in real time in multiple parts of this region,\u201d Balkhy told the Guardian. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about lives being lost. It\u2019s about a collapse of access [to healthcare] in many, many dimensions way above and beyond what we would have imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n The US-Israel war on Iran has killed<\/a> more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, over 1,500 in Iran and 16 in Israel, according to each country\u2019s authorities, with more than a dozen deaths reported in the West Bank and Gulf Arab states.<\/p>\n People with chronic illnesses were seeing treatment disrupted by hospital closures and \u201cthe uprooting and displacement of people where, within less than one month, 3.2 million have been displaced from their homes in Iran and more than 1 million in Lebanon\u201d, Balkhy said.<\/p>\n The harms of conflicts across the region, she said, would be long-term even after open hostilities ceased. She said she was concerned about the effects on maternal mortality and mental health, as well as children left orphaned and without education.<\/p>\n Dr Hanan Balkhy said preparations were being made in case of attacks on nuclear sites and desalination plants. Photograph: WHO<\/p>\n Balkhy said she was also \u201cvery, very worried\u201d about the potential for nuclear sites to be hit, whether deliberately or accidentally, and the health repercussions of a lack of water should desalination plants be further targeted.<\/p>\n She was speaking before Iran\u2019s Atomic Energy Organization reported a projectile hitting the grounds<\/a> of the Bushehr nuclear power plant on Tuesday night. The same facility was reportedly hit on 17 March.<\/p>\n \u201cMy worry is driving me to prepare and to have my teams prepare. And that\u2019s what we\u2019re doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Asked about Iran\u2019s threat to destroy desalination facilities<\/a>, she said \u201cit would be a disaster\u201d, potentially leaving vast numbers of people in Gulf countries trapped without water.<\/p>\n The WHO is working with other UN agencies \u201cto try to find ways to potentially mitigate such catastrophe if it does happen\u201d. Balkhy said rainwater could also carry contamination from attacks on oil sites or nuclear facilities into underground water sources.<\/p>\n \u201cSo even if there was any hope of other types of water sources, it can become contaminated,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are seeing this unfolding in a very dangerous way and the only solution for us at this moment is for a significant de-escalation or a pause \u2013 and hopefully a permanent pause \u2013 in this escalation of the war.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if there was conflict, she urged: \u201cLet\u2019s secure the healthcare sector. Let\u2019s not attack hospitals, health workers, and healthcare facilities and patients. Let\u2019s have at least a safe haven for them.\u201d<\/p>\n The WHO has verified dozens of attacks on healthcare in Lebanon, Iran and Israel since the US-Iran war began.<\/p>\n