Tribune. Since October 2019, Lebanon has been facing one of the world’s worst economic crises, against a backdrop of political deadlock and the exhaustion of a system. The Covid-19 pandemic, then the double explosion that ravaged the capital, Beirut, on August 4, 2020, also contributed to further deteriorating the moral and physical situation of the inhabitants of the country. These crises pile up and feed off.
Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as Médecins sans frontières (MSF), are already present in this country, which has already experienced several tragic episodes in recent decades. This crisis is therefore far from the first in Lebanon, but for most of our colleagues or Lebanese health professionals, the feeling is that the worst is yet to come.
Concerning MSF’s activities, alarming elements reach us every day: chronically ill patients who no longer ask us only for medicines but also for food, more and more Lebanese who come to seek care in clinics initially intended to Syrian and Palestinian refugees, endless queues to benefit from our maternal and child health services… The tangible elements on our activities reflect a global situation which spares only the richest and which is only accelerating.
A situation of food insecurity
The country’s slide is dizzying. The Lebanese pound has already lost 90% of its value, the price of bread has more than doubled in a year, medical materials and equipment as well as some medicines are no longer imported or are blocked in the stocks of importers because of the speculation, and health care is interrupted one after the other.
According to the World Food Program (WFP), in May 2021, 23% of Lebanese and 50% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon were in a situation of food insecurity. The imminent possibility of a lifting of subsidies from the central bank, at the end of its funds, risks further aggravating the situation. Despite the much-vaunted Lebanese resilience and the solidarity of the diaspora towards the families back home, the situation is untenable.
Rising prices, but also power cuts and gasoline shortages are also undermining the very functioning of hospitals. The luckiest Lebanese, educated and connected, are leaving the country out of desperation. Among the Lebanese who flee, there are many doctors and nurses. In May 2021, 1,300 doctors left the territory, according to the Lebanese medical order. This further reduces the possibility of the population to access health care.
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