News - Yemen: The Ministry of Health declares that the lives of kidney failure patients are in danger, while the World Health Organization ignores it.

Al-Masirah obtained correspondence between the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization, revealing the UN'S renunciation of its responsibility towards patients with kidney failure, after a year of official requests to provide the patients' medical needs.

The correspondence showed that the World Health Organization ordered the Ministry of Health in Sana'a to search for local funding, after a year of waiting and the stock of dialysis centers had run out.

In a another letter to the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Health expressed its shock and described the timing of its response as late and disavowing responsibility towards patients with kidney failure.

The ministry said, the organization knows that the US has imposed a siege on Yemen and we do not have financial resources to face the catastrophic depletion of stocks of medicines and solutions for kidney failure.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Public Health for the therapeutic medicine sector, Dr. Ali Jahaf, explained that the ministry earlier had held meetings in November with all organizations in Yemen to remind them of the importance of providing medicines and dialysis solutions.

He stated that the ministry does not have enough stock in dialysis centers, and it may not be possible to hold on until next March only.

Jahaf said that if the ministry did not receive any emergency supplies during this February, Yemen is facing a catastrophe that threatens the lives of kidney failure patients.

Earlier, the official for international cooperation at the Ministry of Health, Murtadha Al-Murtadha, confirmed that the medicines for renal failure's patients in the Ministry of Health's storage are about to run out by the end of this year.

Al-Murtadha stated to Almasirah that 4,150 patients with renal failure are threatened with inevitable death if the dialysis sessions stop, as medicines run out. He said, "We addressed the United Nations organizations months ago regarding the provision of drugs for kidney failure for the year 2023, and delay is the master of the situation." He indicated that due to the blockade on Sana'a Airport and the port of Hodeidah, the state is unable to import medicines, and therefore we resort to United Nations organizations.

The official for international cooperation at the Ministry of Health pointed out that the documents of the Ministry of Public Health presented by Almasirah show calls for the World Health Organization since January 2022 to provide medicines for renal failure and warn of depletion of stock.

On December, the Minister of Health, Dr. Taha Al-Mutawakel, reviewed with the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Catherine Russell, the needs of the health sector with regard to childhood care.

During the meeting, Al-Mutawakel pointed out the importance of the visit to see closely the scale of the humanitarian disaster in Yemen, especially what children and women are exposed to as a result of the continued aggression and siege. He emphasized that women and children were directly targeted by the US-Saudi aggression, which caused long-term psychological and physical suffering, indicating that the aggression killed more than eight thousand children and women over eight years.

He pointed out that the US-Saudi crimes continue through the increase in cases of fetal deformities resulting from raids and cluster bombs, explaining that Al-Sabeen Hospital witnesses many of these cases.

The Minister of Health reviewed the needs of the health sector with regard to childhood, which UNICEF relies on to provide to ensure the protection of newborns and children from deadly and life-threatening diseases through the provision of incubators and medicines, stressing the need for continued support for urgent needs and the expansion and operation of health centers and units.