Dec 26, 2014

ALEPPO, Syria — Skin diseases, in particular scabies and head lice, are raising concerns among residents and medical staff in the rebel-held part of Aleppo. Head lice, which first appeared in October in the al-Sukkari neighborhood, has now spread to most of the city’s neighborhoods, especially those close to the front lines.

This prompted a team of activists from the National Campaign to Combat Epidemics in Aleppo to declare Dec. 17 that scabies and lice have reached “epidemic” proportions in the areas controlled by rebels. The team called on all health and relief agencies and other organizations to intervene to fight this “humanitarian catastrophe.”

The campaign to fight these afflictions began around a month ago, but it has so far been limited to schools. Al-Monitor visited a school in the Bustan al-Qasr neighborhood where activists were examining students for scabies and lice and providing instructions on how to avoid them.

While examining the hair of a student with lice, Samar Ayoubi, a campaign supervisor, told Al-Monitor, “Scabies and lice are quickly spreading, especially in schools. Two weeks ago, the rate of scabies was 35% and 25% for lice in this school. Today, it has reached 45% for both diseases even though we distributed medicine to the affected students.”

Ayoub added, “We need a huge quantity of medicine to distribute to the residents to completely eliminate these diseases and prevent them from reappearing. The Red Crescent promised to provide the needed medicine after the medical storage provided by Medical Relief for Syria ran out.”