Russian doctors in Syria continue to provide medical care for Aleppo residents

MOSCOW, December 19 /TASS/. Russian Emergencies Ministry doctors continue to help Syrians physically injured during the hostilities, the ministry’s press service told TASS on Monday.

"More than 1,250 people, including 462 women and 375 children, have received medical assistance since the Emergencies Ministry doctors started working in Syria. Sixty-three [Aleppo] refugees, including 17 women and 23 children, who fled the area of military hostilities, have received treatment over the past 24 hours. Twenty-two of them have undergone surgery while 41 have sought therapeutic treatment," the Emergencies Ministry said.

Anesthesiologist Viktor Belinsky from the Russian Emergencies Ministry detachment Centrospas said that most Syrians who had sought medical assistance from the Russian doctors were suffering from upper respiratory infections and rankled wounds, which they had failed to sterilize on time due to lack of qualified medical care.

"A wound, which is not ascepticized on time could become a source of various infections and a number of other diseases, which run down a patient’s physical condition to a point where they need hospital treatment. The Russian Emergencies Ministry doctors, using ambulatory care, are carrying out anti-bacterial therapy in a bid to prevent further complications," Belinsky noted.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry’s aeromobile hospital can admit 50 patients for stationary treatment and provide outpatient treatment for up to 200 people. The hospital has an admission department, a surgical department with a recovery unit, two surgery departments, an intensive care unit, three hospital departments, an obstetric-gynecological unit, a diagnostics department as well as two departments for outpatient treatment. 

Monitors' work in Syria 

The activity of international monitors in Aleppo must be carried out in compliance with international law and the Syrian government’s consent, the Russian Foreign Ministry said after Monday’s meeting Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov held with the ambassadors of Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland in Moscow.

The issue discussed was progress in coordinating a UN Security Council resolution on dispatching foreign observers to Aleppo.

"Russia said their activity must proceed in compliance with international humanitarian law, which, among other things, requires the Syrian government’s consent to such humanitarian cooperation," the Foreign Ministry said.

"The ambassadors were briefed on the humanitarian situation in Syria, with a special emphasis placed on the measures Russia was taking to carry out evacuation from eastern Aleppo and guarantee civilians’ access to humanitarian aid," the Foreign Ministry said.

It is expected that the UN Security Council on Monday will consider a draft resolution on sending international monitors to Aleppo to coordinate the process of evacuation of civilians from the conflict-ravaged eastern parts of the city. Under the draft resolution the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations will be commissioned to carry out immediate supervision of the evacuation of civilians from eastern Aleppo and other parts of the city and also to coordinate that process.