IRAQ
REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE 17 June 2016
UNOG – UN Office at Geneva
[Excerpts; Text bolding by Editor]
Iraq
Tarik Jasarevic, for the World Health Organization (WHO), introduced Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, speaking by phone from Iraq. Dr Alwan had been visiting displaced people from Fallujah over the past few days. He said that more than 40,000 people had been displaced in Amiriyat Fallujah, from the outskirts of Fallujah city. The WHO team had visited almost all the camps housing the thousands of families who had left Fallujah during the recent events. Some of the camps were housing people who had fled from Ramadi, following the military operations there. Most of the IDPs in the camps had left Fallujah in recent days. Fallujah had not been accessible to any humanitarian actors in more than a year, which was extremely worrisome. There were still an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people inside the city. Some of them were beginning to leave today, and there was a flow of different people reaching parts of the region…

…Mothers had told the WHO team that their children had not been vaccinated for the past two years, which was of great concern, as those children were at risk of outbreaks of preventable diseases, such as polio. The team had seen one- to three-year-olds who had never been vaccinated. WHO had started immediately preparing for a massive vaccination campaign against polio and measles to all displaced children from zero to 15 years of age.

A major concern was the spread of diseases due to overcrowding and an inadequate hygiene situation, with a lack of sufficient sanitation. Water was now available in the camps and WHO was trying to monitor the quality of water. The lack of electricity in many places was another complicated issue being discussed with the Government. WHO was working closely with UNICEF on the water and sanitation issues in the camps…

…In response to questions, Dr Alwan said that in the camps WHO was providing routine immunization services, but had also decided that a regular, comprehensive campaign was needed covering the age group from zero to 15 years of age to reduce the possibility of disease outbreaks. WHO wanted to cover all the IDPs, all the children in the camps in existence today and those where the newcomers from Fallujah would go. The current camps in Amiriyat Fallujah were almost completely full now and newcomers were being directed to new camps in two different regions: Khalidiya and the Habbaniyah Tourist City. The immunization campaign would cover all those places.

Dr Alwan also said that the estimated total number of IDPs in the different camps was around 70,000, and it did not include those who would still come out of Fallujah. There was no precise estimation of the number of children as of yet, but it would be over 50 per cent of the population….