Mariupol Maternity Hospital Bombed, as Scientists Warn of Looming Nuclear Danger
Public Health 09/03/2022 •

A maternity and children´s hospital in the southern Ukranian city of Mariupol was bombed Wednesday, reportedly injuring 17 people, while WHO warned that Ukrainians who manage to escape direct injury in Russian bombings and shellings face hypothermia, frostbite and respiratory diseases, as well as conflict-related trauma – while the lack of access to treatment for cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health is exacerbating chronic health conditions. 

Infectious diseases such as measles, tuberculosis, COVID-19 and even polio also are expected to increase as millions of people flee the Russian bombing of their towns and communities, WHO officials told a media briefing.  Cities like the southern Ukranian city of Mariupol remain cut off from adequate food, water and sanitation services, furtherin increasing infectious disease risks. Two million people have fled the country so far, while relief workers say that the number may double shortly. 

Mariupol shelling

In Wednesday’s shelling of the maternity hospital, including a children’s ward, in Mariupol, the Black Sea port city under siege by Russian troops, the region’s governor said 17 people were wounded, including women in labour.

A video circulated by Ukranian authorities showed a heavily damaged three-storey building, in a large compound also devastated by mangled glass, steel and wood outside. Much of the front of the building had been ripped away. BBC later released what it described as verified pictures of the Russian strike on the hospital.

“WHO is aware of disturbing news reports about an attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine,” said Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a Twitter post on Wednesday evening, condemning the ongoing violence, including the attacks on health facilities. As of Tuesday, WHO had verified 16 other Russian attacks on health facilities.

Fears of radiation accident

Meanwhile, there are growing fears of nuclear incidents in Ukraine after Russia seized control of both the Zaporizhzhya and Chernobyl nuclear power plants, after bombing Zaporizhzhya and causing a fire that burnt for almost five hours.

The Union of Concerned Scientists’ director of nuclear safety, Ed Lyman, warned on Tuesday that if the nuclear plants’ cooling systems are interrupted, it could result in the release of radioactive material.

The loss of power reported at Chernobyl on Wednesday “violates a key safety pillar on ensuring uninterrupted power supply”, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but added “ in this case IAEA sees no critical impact on safety”.

According to the IAEA “the heat load of the spent fuel storage pool and the volume of cooling water contained in the pool is sufficient to maintain effective heat removal without the need for electrical supply”.

“The Zaporizhzhia plant is just one of four Ukrainian nuclear facilities whose 15 reactors provide more than half of the country’s electricity. None of the reactors was built to withstand a military assault,” said Lyman.

“Although there is no way to know if Russia intentionally targeted Zaporizhzhia, all of the plants are also vulnerable to indirect fire that could damage critical support systems and surrounding infrastructure, potentially resulting in a fuel meltdown and a radiological release that could contaminate thousands of square miles of terrain,” added Lyman.

While the IAEA was taking the lead on managing the nuclear risk, all countries have preparedness plans for nuclear events, said WHO’s head of emergency response, Dr Mike Ryan.

“Given the risks that have been risen in terms of an accidental event occurring, governments are well-advised to ensure that their preparedness plans and their supply chains are in place,” he added.

The WHO has raised the issues of chemical and bio-radio safety since the start of the conflict and ensured that any “high threat pathogens” in Ukraine had been autoclaved and destroyed,” added Ryan.

Dr Mike Ryan

Rising risk of infectious diseases

“We are tracking the risk of the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, such as measles, polio, and COVID-19,” said Dr Adelheid Marschang, WHO senior emergency officer. 

“Due to population movements and disruptions, we will have to look very, very carefully at that. We have further health risks related to mental health, psychosocial health. People are very, very stressed.”

Marschang added that the most vulnerable people “are those that cannot move because they have a chronic disease” and don’t have access to their usual treatment.

“There is increased risk of gender-based violence as women, children and the elderly travel, stay at reception centres or apartments or remain alone,” she added.

Adelheid Marschang

“The only real solution to this situation is peace, and WHO continues to call on the Russian Federation to commit to a peaceful resolution to this crisis, and to allow safe, unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance for those in need,” said Dr Tedros.

“The WHO has delivered 81 metric tonnes of supplies and is establishing a pipeline of supplies for health facilities throughout Ukraine, especially in the most affected areas,” added Tedros.

Supplies delivered to Kyiv include surgical care for 150 trauma patients and a month’s supply of medical supplies for a range of health conditions for 45,000 people, he added.

A further 400 cubic metres of supplies were waiting to be transported for Ukraine from the WHO’s logistics hub in Dubai, added Tedros.

Although the health sector had been remarkably resilient, about 1000 health facilities are either on frontlines are within 10 kilometres of the frontline of conflict and were becoming “engulfed” in it, said Ryan.

Dr Maria van Kerkhove

Second anniversary of COVID-19 

Friday marks the second anniversary of the declaration of COVID-19 spread as a pandemic, and over six million people had since died, said Tedros.

But although reported cases and deaths are declining globally, “countries in Asia and the Pacific are facing surges of cases and as the virus continues to evolve, and we continue to face major obstacles in distributing vaccines, tests and treatments everywhere they are needed,” said Tedros.

He expressed concern that countries were reducing testing, and said that the WHO was recommending that self-testing for COVID-19 should be offered in addition to professionally administered testing services.

“This recommendation is based on evidence that shows users can reliably and accurately self-test and that self-testing may reduce inequalities in testing access,” said Tedros.

COVID-19 Delta-Omicron ‘recombinant’ in Europe

Meanwhile, Dr Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s COVID-19 lead, said that a COVID-19 “recombinant” made up of “Delta AY.4 and Omicron VA.1” had been identified in France, the Netherlands and Denmark.

“The recombinant is something that is expected given the intense amount of circulation that we saw with both Omicron and Delta”, and that both were circulating at high levels in Europe at the same time, said Van Kerkhove.

“There’s very good surveillance in many countries right now. And given the sheer number of changes and mutations within Omicron, it was much easier for researchers, scientists, public health professionals, people who are studying the genome to be able to detect these recombinants.

“We have not seen any change in the epidemiology with this recombinant. We haven’t seen any change in severity. But there are many studies that are underway.”

 

Image Credits: Gayatri Malhotra/ Unsplash.

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