The World Health Organization says it is expanding its life-saving mission across Ukraine to provide physical and mental health care to the growing number of war victims without treatment.
Source: Ukraine Crisis Incident Manager at the World Health Organization Dorit Nitzan
WHO has seven centers throughout Ukraine that provide for the needs of people affected by the war. Now the organization is creating an eighth hub in the strategic southwestern port city of Odessa.
The WHO Crisis Incident Manager in Ukraine said WHO is committed to helping people whose physical and mental health has been affected or worsened by the Russian invasion. She says millions of people with chronic illnesses are not receiving treatment for life-threatening conditions. For example, people who do not receive an early cancer diagnosis and treatment suffer from progressive tumors. Likewise, she reported, the condition of people who could not receive treatment for hypertension, stroke, diabetes and other physical and mental illnesses worsened.
“Because of the war, people become disabled in various ways.The noise and the bombing damage the hearing. Land mines were the cause of amputations. And, of course, fear, grief and uncertainty, which affect mental health.”
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