WHO

A technical briefing on healthcare workers under attack was held 21 May by WHO in occasion of the 67th World Health Assembly. Attacks on health care workers, patients and health facilities are increasing in many parts of the world. These attacks violate the basic right to health care and reflect a grave lack of respect for International Humanitarian Law, which provides special status and protection to health-care personnel. Violence against the health system limits access to medical services for those who need them most and can have grave public health consequences.

PESHAWAR: Masked gunmen kidnapped a six-member polio vaccination team — a doctor, two local employees of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and three guards — in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Monday, an official said. Local administration official Niamat Ullah Khan said the team was seized some 300 kilometres southwest of Peshawar, in Ping village at the border of South Waziristan.

Report from the World Health Organization, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and UN Children’s Fund We strongly condemn attacks on health and any other civilian facilities in Syria and are deeply concerned by the serious implications for patients, health personnel and provision of critical medical supplies.