During the past years, humanitarian oragnisations have been increasingly reluctant to provide an emergency medical assistance to populations in danger. Despite the life saving impact of healthcare humanitarian response, most of aid agencies are gradually opting instead for large-scale programs dedicated to Non Food Item, food, water or shelter distribution. If other factors can also explain this movement of de-medicalzation, past analyses have highlighted logistics constraints as the main impediment: importing drugs in compliance with national custom restrictions, organizing medical storage in a remote health center, maintaining biomedical technology in hospitals, ensuring a proper cold chain are among many other elements that are contributing to a reduction of access to essential health care for war victims or populations affected by other type of violence, when it is not related to a natural disaster.
About the authorPierre Boulet-Desbareau is an aid worker specialized in emergency response to humanitarian crises
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