With temperatures soaring to over 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts of Iraq, and the number of people fleeing violence topping three million, the World Health Organisation fears the closure of nearly 90 percent of the health centres in conflict-affected areas unless donors respond to an urgent appeal to ensure their continuing operation.
A WHO spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier, said his agency urgently needs US$60 million to ensure the continuing operation of 77 health centres in Iraq, including 12 mobile clinics, which are on the verge of closing this month.
The 77 health facilities represent 88 percent of current health projects in conflict-affected areas in the country, Mr. Lindmeier said at the UN press briefing in Geneva, Switzerland.
He also said that temperatures in Iraq were soaring, topping 120 degrees in some locations.
"That situation," the spokesperson said, "coupled with poor access to #healthcare and the 3 million internally displaced people who are forced to live in tents, there had been a rise in #disease, namely dehydration and diarrhoea."
WHO was appealing desperately to provide life-saving medicines, Mr. Lindmeier said.Meanwhile, the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, announced that the number of Iraqis who have been displaced now stood at 3,087,372 and were found across all of Iraq's 18 governorates.
IOM spokesperson, Joel Millman, said the majority had fled from violence from the three governorates of Anbar, 1.2 million, Nineveh, just over one million, and Salah-al-Din, almost half a million.
Of the total displaced population, he said that 55 percent were displaced after 15th May, when the city of Ramadi in the Anbar governorate was entirely occupied by armed groups.
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