Cancer patients: The other victims of Yemen’s war
SANAA: On Yemen’s western coast, Mohammed al-hosami (pictured below) receives support from the people of his village in al Mahwit to pay for his mother’s cancer treatment in a clinic in nearby Hodeidah city.
“There is no work or salary so we can’t afford transportation costs, and the village helped me with the payments for treatment and to take her there,” he said as a doctor tended to his mother, who had visible swelling in one arm. Millions of Yemenis are at risk from hunger and cholera brought on by three years of war, an emergency that has also hit cancer patients, struggling to get treatment in a country where the economy and infrastructure have collapsed.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said around 35,000 people have cancer in Yemen, with about 11,000 cases diagnosed each year. Khaled Ismael’s daughter, Radhiya, 17, had her left arm amputated due to cancer.
“I spent all our valuables and had to borrow a lot of money to cover the expenses of my daughter’s treatment. In the end, we couldn’t afford a good treatment,” Ismael said. “Because of our inability to travel abroad, my daughter did not get enough treatment and her arm had to be amputated.” “It is very difficult to find medicines, and if you find them in the market, they’re too expensive and citizens cannot afford them,” said Mohammed al Emad, accompanying a relative going for treatment in the capital Sanaa.
Yemen is embroiled in a war between a Saudi-led military coalition and the Ansar Allah. The fighting has crippled its economy and healthcare system, and unleashed the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis with millions facing starvation and diseases such as cholera, diphtheria and malaria.
A woman holds a chemotherapy IV for her son who has cancer at The National Oncology Centre in Sanaa. The Saudi-led alliance has imposed stringent measures on maritime trade to Yemen in an effort to choke off arms supplies to the Ansar Allah, who still control the most populous areas of the country including Sanaa. But the measures have also slowed the flow of desperately needed aid supplies.
The National Oncology Centre in Sanaa admits around 600 new cancer patients each month. But it received only $1 million in funding last year from state entities and international aid groups, the head of the centre, Ahmed al Ashwal, said. The few beds available at the centre are reserved for children. Other patients receive treatment intravenously, while sitting on dilapidated recliner chairs or in the waiting area.
A girl with cancer lies on a bed at The National Oncology Centre in Sanaa. The WHO said that prior to the conflict, the centre used to receive $15 million a year from the state and that the budget was used to purchase chemotherapy medications and anticancer drugs for oncology centres across the country.
“Now, the National Oncology Centre is totally relying on the fund provided by international organizations, including WHO, and some charitable organizations or businessmen as the government fund has been disrupted for around two years,” it said in a statement.