Letter

Gloves off for Tigray

Dear healthmatters — I am writing to draw the attention of your readers to the current health situation in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia.

People are dying in Tigray for the want of a pair of sterile surgical gloves costing 24 pence.

After 17 years of civil war, two years of peace have brought demobbed soldiers and refugees from famine back to their homes in towns and villages with great rejoicing. But it has also brought the fear of AIDS. Seventy per cent of ‘bar ladies’ and street children are HIV positive.

Sterile gloves are unobtainable so midwives cannot attend women in childbirth without risk both to the patient and to themselves, and surgeons cannot carry out even the simplest operations. Health services in the 155 hospitals, health centres and clinics are breaking down.

REST UK, the Relief Society of Tigray UK support committee, received an urgent fax no 17 March asking for help in supplying 60,000 gloves. By 5 April 17,000 pairs had been airfreighted out, but 43,000 more are needed.

REST was started by Tigrayans themselves in 1978 and works at grass roots level through locally elected councils in the villages and towns. Today the health situation in Tigray is exacerbated as low rainfall in the east and the south has left over a million people in need of food aid.

Farmers are migrating to towns, thus putting an even greater strain on health services. REST is working to get emergency food to people and to alleviate health problems.

Donations to our medical aid work can be sent to: REST UK, The Studio, Wayford, Crewkerne, Somerset TA18 8QG.