Syrian cancer patients denied treatment in Turkey

The New Arab reports that over the weekend, dozens of Syrians gathered at the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey to protest Turkey’s refusal to allow cancer patients to cross the border for treatment. At least three people, including 11-year-old Suleiman Issa, have died of cancer in recent days in rebel-held areas of Idlib and Aleppo provinces in northwestern Syria, The New Arab reported.

According to the report, an estimated 3.300 people in north-west Syria suffer from cancer. Turkish authorities have closed access to Syrian cancer patients since the Turkish-Syrian earthquake, which damaged some hospitals in southern Turkey. About 65% of cancer patients in northwestern Syria are women and children, the report noted, adding that there has been a rapid and alarming increase in cancer cases. In the last five months, some 608 new cases have been reported, including 373 children, equivalent to about three new cases per day.

Syrian activists have called for an international investigation into the rising cases, saying the World Health Organization should look into the situation, the report said. The activists declared that “several factors are behind the alarming rise in cancer in northwestern Syria, including the presence of ordnance left behind by previous and continuing bombing of the area by the Assad regime and Russia”.

According to the Idlib Health Directorate, 867 patients had to be taken to Turkey for urgent treatment, but only 259 of them were able to receive treatment in Turkish hospitals. All of these patients were being treated in Turkey before the Turkey-Syria earthquake. The Health Directorate said that about half of the cancer patients, some 1.650 cases, were receiving chemotherapy in clinics in north-west Syria, but all of them needed more specialized treatment in Turkey due to a lack of adequate equipment in some parts of Syria.