DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Earlier, Abdul Kader Hasan, head of the Medical Association in the western Syrian city of Homs, told Sputnik that the country’s Health Ministry had repeatedly tried to bring over medical supplies in Yarmouk, but unidentified armed men blocked humanitarian convoys.
"The humanitarian situation in the Yarmouk camp is bad. The authorities and WHO representatives have registered over 100 typhoid fever cases in the past two weeks among people who left the camp and live in the nearby villages of Yalda and Babila," Karim Shukr, WHO media and coordination officer for Syria Crisis Response team, said.
He pointed out that the transfer of any assistance to the Yarmouk camp was taking place under the coordination of the UN agencies and the Syrian government.
"The cause of the problem is contaminated water and food," he specified.
Before the Syrian civil war, Yarmouk was home to more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees. After the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, the camp was regularly taken over by various militant groups, including the Islamic State.
At present, it is home to nearly 18,000 refugees, including some 3,500 children, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Typhoid fever is a dangerous bacterial disease, caused by Salmonella typhi. It is transmitted through the ingestion of food or drink.
