Feature: Displaced Syrians in Lebanon face slow death in absence of effective health care

Displaced Syrian Salwa al-Ali held her child Chadi who suffers from lung cancer, and contemplated his pale face marked with signs of slow death, wondering about ways easing his suffering.

Al-Ali lives with her family of five children in a modest room on the western hills of Lebanon's Bekaa town of Saghbin, wondering about what could be done for her child whom she cannot even afford paying for a doctor to treat him.

She lost her husband in the battles of Syria's Idlib two years ago and dropped any hope of hospitalizing her child because of the unaffordable bill.

"All the doctors said that my child should go to a specialized hospital, but for this I need pay 5,000 U.S. dollars and it is impossible for me to arrange this sum following the halt of the aid agencies operations," She told Xinhua.

Abou Ahmad Hassan al-Khoueiry, displaced from Aleppo, lost his daughter last year after she was diagnosed with severe lungs infection.

"Thousands of displaced Syrians are on the path of slow death because the lack of necessary health care. What worsened the situation is the inability of the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)," he said.

The reduction of the International aid became the obsession of the displaced Syrian community in Lebanon, and the registration cards given to the refugees does not allow cancer patients or those diagnosed with chronic disease to receive medical treatment.

"We are living in a state of despair and afraid of the future," Hassiba al-Hassan, displaced from the Damascus neighborhoods, told Xinhua.

She said the names of many displaced families have been removed from the food aid lists. "We have been told that the number of Syrian families who are being removed from the lists is about 3,000 families monthly."

At the main entrance of one of the Bekaa hospitals, Walid al-Oreiji, a 10-year-old Syrian child, died after the hospital refused to treat him of kidney failure.

According to the UNHCR, Lebanon hosts around 1.2 million Syrian refugees and face a huge burden in providing them with their basic needs. Endit