Viral hepatitis is sweeping the Al-Shajara district in the Yarmouk Basin area in the southern Daraa province It began appearing about a month ago, due to contamination of drinking water, threatening the lives of more than 30,000 civilians there.
Not a house in the region was free of infection with this epidemic, as entire families lay bedridden, waiting for an unknown fate, after the world ignored the cries for help, which confirm that those infected there were allowed to the epidemic sneak up on them one after another in light of the tragic conditions that the Syrians are living under, in which they are unable to pay any pill price.
The tragedies that the Assad regime brought upon the people of this region were not limited to barrel bombs, displacement, and the rule of ISIS, but rather included all aspects of life, starting from livelihood and living conditions, through health and education, and ending with collective punishment represented by siege, arrest, and marginalization.
*A call to the consciences of the world
The people issued a statement in which they appealed to the consciences of the world to extend an urgent helping hand. It said: “We are the people of the Al-Shajara district in the western countryside of Daraa city.
The entire region is crying out for your consciences, and for your humanity, after we have lost hope in someone who will save more than 30,000 people from the viral hepatitis pandemic.”
*The regime is watching
In light of the horror of this frightening epidemic, the regime’s role is limited to issuing press releases issued by the governorate office, and sending some “serums,” while the only clinic in the town of Al-Shajara closes its doors despite the urgent need for a medical staff for emergency cases, according to Bashar Abu Saifan.
He confirmed to Zaman al-Was that the suffering of the people in the Yarmouk Basin in general, and the afflicted Shajara town in particular, was not limited to the lack of water, electricity, and the rest of the services to live with the simplest necessities of life, until the tragedy worsened by leaving waste to accumulate in the streets, alleys, and water springs, followed by Pollution in drinking water was the most important cause of the outbreak of an epidemic that infected the livers and their souls with the virus (hepatitis A), leaving hundreds of children and parents (entire families) bedridden, accompanied by pain, vomiting, and high fever, and many of them had no caregiver or breadwinner.
The resident of the afflicted town of Al-Shajara said that medical sources recorded more than 2,000 infections in the town of Al-Shajara alone, in addition to dozens of cases in 9 neighboring villages, and the numbers are increasing day after day.
He added that infections began to appear among school students since the beginning of the school year. At that time, families demanded that classes be stopped and that investigation and awareness teams be brought in to prevent the spread of the infection, but there was no response.
“The Health Directorate only responded by sending serums to the only clinic in the area, some of which had expired.”
Abu Saifan sent a distress call through Zaman al-Wasl, saying: “On behalf of those afflicted in the town of Al-Shajara and the Yarmouk Basin in general, we appeal to all local and international humanitarian, relief, and even human rights organizations inside and outside Syria to intervene immediately to stop this pandemic by all available means and save more than About 30 thousand people only in the Yarmouk Basin, if the infection does not spread to the rest of the regions and neighboring countries, since our region is a border region, as it is bordered to the south by Jordan and to the west by the Syrian Golan.”
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