2023-08-28 12:32:06
The Minister of Public Health in the caretaker government, Firas Al-Abyadh, indicated, during a press conference to launch the annual reports of maternal deaths for the past years 2020-2021-2022, that “all of the Ministry of Public Health’s programs such as surveillance, information collection and primary health care are still carrying out their full duties despite the failure of many Public institutions in Lebanon are under the weight of the economic crisis.
Al-Abyadh pointed out that “the rate, which is classified as low for maternal mortality in Lebanon, reflects the great efforts made by all concerned, whether in the ministry, all partners, or workers in the health sector, such as midwives, doctors, and nurses, which helps the health system in Lebanon to maintain on good signs.”
He believed that “the maternal mortality index constitutes clear evidence, among other evidence, of the resilience of the health system in Lebanon, otherwise the death rate would have increased. Despite the enormous challenges caused by the economic crisis, the maternal mortality rate did not increase, but rather this rate was maintained in 2020 and 2022.” It is considered a low number of deaths, which was reached before the crisis in 2017, and it is true that this rate increased due to the Corona epidemic in 2021, but it quickly returned to its previous levels following the effects of the epidemic receded.
He stressed that “the Lebanese health system has succeeded in facing various challenges, the most prominent of which is the presence of more than one and a half million displaced Syrians on Lebanese soil.”
He stated that “what is remarkable in the figures presented is that the health indicators of the displaced Syrians are similar to the health indicators of the Lebanese, which confirms the tremendous efforts made by Lebanon and the health system to provide quality services to the Lebanese and residents on Lebanese soil.”
Al-Abyadh expressed the Ministry’s serious concern regarding reducing the health budget of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees by forty percent, which constitutes a great danger to public health, especially with the spread of epidemics and other diseases, as it is unfair and moral to place the burden on Lebanon amid all the difficult circumstances it is going through. “.
He recalled “the necessity of adhering to what the European Union Parliament recently decided on calling on various donors to help Lebanon bear the burdens of the displaced, so that the same level of support provided to them must be maintained and not reduced.”
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