Paris (AFP)

With nearly 300,000 victims in Beirut and a possible shortage of medicines, Doctors Without Borders fears a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon comparable to those experienced during the civil war (1975-1992), its president, the Franco-Lebanese, told AFP on Thursday. Mego Terzian.

QUESTION: Can Beirut hospitals withstand the shock?

ANSWER: "According to our teams on site, on Tuesday evening there was a massive influx to hospitals in Beirut and the region and, very quickly, the emergency rooms were overwhelmed. Patients had to be transferred to out of town. The situation seems to have been much more stable since Wednesday. Lebanese health workers, especially those already experienced in the civil war, have managed to triage very quickly in front of emergency rooms and prioritize patients who had to go through operating theaters. The Achrafieh district in the city center is badly affected and three of its hospitals, including that of Saint-George, which has 1,100 beds, has been affected. The dialysis center, which is the main one in the country, has been completely destroyed. "

Q: What are the priority needs?

A: "The neighboring countries, Qatar, Kuwait or Jordan, are going to deploy field hospitals. And we will, at the request of the authorities, guarantee the supply of certain drugs, especially antibiotics and painkillers, and everything. blood bags. Since Wednesday morning, we have been present in crisis meetings of the World Health Organization with other humanitarian organizations. We have shared the tasks to help the affected populations, these 300,000 people who have no more home. Our priority in the coming days will be the monitoring of these displaced populations. The other priority will be the chronically ill, those with cancer, HIV or respiratory diseases such as asthma, with the risk of rupture drug supply. We also learned that drug and vaccine warehouses located in the port of Beirut had been damaged. "

Q: In the memory of humanitarian aid and Lebanese, has Beirut ever been hit by a health crisis of this magnitude?

A: "We have already lived during the Lebanese war difficult and similar times with, I remember, bombings on oil warehouses which are not far from the port. They were the same scenes, the city was completely devastated, people were walking in the streets, wounded, desperate, without knowing where to go Some MSF staff, who were mobilized during this period, are also very affected and touched by the gravity of the testimonies, which plunge us back into this very hard period. "

Interview by Daphné ROUSSEAU

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