Taiz, Yemen – It was around 10:30 a.m. in the dialysis center of Taiz Republican Hospital when a machine began filtering excess fluids, toxins and salts from Omar Mukhtar Hammoud’s blood.
The 16-year-old suffers from kidney failure and is one of 270 patients regularly receiving dialysis at the center of the government city in southwest Yemen. But with critical shortages of medical supplies and fuel due to the Houthis’ new siege, doctors fear they will soon be unable to provide the treatment that keeps their patients alive.
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Dr. Essam Mahyoub Dahan, director of the center, warned that a complete closure could occur within a few days.
“Due to the siege and the shortage of diesel and medical solutions, we were recently forced to reduce dialysis sessions from four hours to just two and a half hours,” Dahan told Al Jazeera. “We know this is not enough, but we have no choice if we want to keep the center operating for as long as possible before it closes completely. »
Dahan said the center’s remaining stocks of specialized dialysis solutions were also close to running out.
The expensive supplies are normally provided by the Yemeni Ministry of Health every three months. But the last delivery, scheduled for the beginning of the month, did not arrive due to the Houthi siege on the city of Taiz. It began in the first week of October after the Houthis advanced into the Taiz countryside.
The city was previously completely besieged by the Houthis between 2015 and 2016, during the early years of Yemen’s ongoing war.
In Taiz governorate, where fighting rages between Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces and Iran-allied Houthi fighters, the number of patients at risk is much higher.
In an October 12 statement, the governorate health office warned that the continued siege and obstruction of essential supplies could endanger the lives of 1,110 kidney failure patients. They depend on the dialysis services of hospitals in the governorate, which collectively provide around 210 dialysis sessions per day.
International humanitarian and health organizations have issued similar warnings about the siege’s impact on Taiz’s already fragile health system.
On Thursday, Amnesty International called on the Houthis to immediately reopen vital roads to and around the city, warning that the closure of the main road between Taiz and the southern port city of Aden threatened hundreds of thousands of civilians with loss of access to food, water and healthcare.
Fuel: a lifeline for hospitals
Taiz’s hospitals rely largely on diesel generators because much of the city’s electrical infrastructure was destroyed during the war that began 11 years ago and has not been restored.
The Houthis’ new siege has severely disrupted the entry of fuel, including diesel needed to operate hospital generators and vital medical equipment.
Dr Shaheed al-Ameri, deputy director general for technical affairs at the Republican Hospital, said the shortages have had a devastating impact on medical services.
“A very large part of this suffering is due to the shortage of diesel,” he told Al Jazeera. “We have no reserves of diesel. Our stocks ran out at the start of the siege and we now buy it on the black market almost every day, at prices that are five times what they were before the siege.”
Al-Ameri warned that the longer the siege continues, the more prices will rise and medical services will deteriorate.
The hospital has already suspended operations in some departments, including essential units, he said.
“If this situation continues for much longer, we fear we will see a total and global collapse of health services,” he said.
The shortages are not limited to the Republican Hospital. On October 22, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that serious shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicines and medical supplies were threatening vital healthcare across Taiz Governorate, with some hospital services already disrupted.
According to the WHO, 42 health facilities in Taiz city reported serious shortages of essential supplies. Hospitals and ambulances need at least 156,000 liters of fuel per month to continue operating.
The organization also warned that diesel shortages threaten to disrupt oxygen production, water pumping, vaccine refrigeration and sanitation services, increasing the risks of outbreaks, particularly among displaced families and other vulnerable groups.
The United Nations separately warned that restrictions on supplies were bringing Taiz’s health system to the brink of collapse and urged the Houthis to allow the entry of humanitarian aid and essential goods without hindrance.
Oxygen shortages worsen crisis
In its October 12 statement, the Taiz health office warned that continued restrictions on fuel deliveries could lead to the closure of medical oxygen production plants, further endangering patients.
Taysir al-Samei, media head of the health office, said this would significantly worsen the crisis.
“Many medical services rely on oxygen, especially operating rooms, inpatient wards, intensive care units and incubators for premature babies,” al-Samei explained.
“Most hospitals have already suspended services in some units due to lack of diesel and lack of necessary medical solutions, as well as lack of medical staff who find it difficult to get to work due to lack of transportation,” he added.
He warned that if conditions continued to deteriorate at the same rate, some hospitals could stop providing services in the coming days.
At the Republican Hospital, al-Ameri said shortages were also affecting diagnostics and treatments. Availability of laboratory reagents has fallen to only 10 to 15 percent of previous levels, he explained, while about half of normally available medicines are now out of stock.
Prices of the remaining drugs have doubled, he said, putting them further out of reach for patients already facing Yemen’s deepening economic crisis.
Continued fighting and shelling around Taiz has increased the number of wounded requiring emergency care, putting additional pressure on facilities already struggling with shortages of surgical equipment, anesthetics and intravenous fluids.
Abdul Badi Abdulwuhab, 53, is another dialysis patient at the Republican Hospital, who is struggling to cope with the shorter dialysis sessions.
His voice was filled with despair.
“Because of these measures, I suffer from weakness and cannot bear the pain,” Abdul Badi told Al Jazeera. “Two and a half hours is not enough time to remove all the fluids and toxins from my body.”
Dr Dahan said the patient’s condition had deteriorated since his sessions were shortened.
“These measures are not effective for many patients,” Dahan said. “The only solution is to end the siege and return things to the way they were. »
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