The Thalassaemia International Federation (TIF) is issuing a belated, albeit necessary and desperate, plea on behalf of patients with thalassaemia who are direct witnesses and, increasingly, victims of armed conflict.
The purpose of this plea is not to repeat facts well known. Instead, we want this to act as a reminder of the real human cost behind the headlines and war bulletins, the thousands more of unnamed men, women, and children who have lost their lives in the name of regional power plays. People are deprived of basic needs and lose their lives well before a single bullet is fired or a bomb is dropped; food, water, sanitation, medication, and basic healthcare are denied to them.
The most vulnerable amongst us, our children, our elderly, and those of us with chronic conditions, are the least able to cope with the deprivation and the first to suffer under these inhumane conditions. They are the least likely to survive in a hostile environment and make up the majority of the victims, yet they do not feature in any bulletins or war statistics. Patients are equally rendered victims as armed forces forego international humanitarian law, instead targeting civilian populations in pursuit of enemies allegedly hiding in cities and residential areas.
Constant exposure to media coverage helps desensitize us to the increasing number of these violations. We are shocked at the death of a single human being, but are impassive when the victims are measured in the thousands. The disabled, children, and elderly all have human rights, signed and sealed by those who govern countries. Rights that are often forgotten and marginalized when conflict moves to an active stage, bombing and shooting the unarmed population, but especially by destroying infrastructure crucial for providing food, water, and medical services.
Patients with thalassaemia require lifelong regular blood transfusions and daily medications, all of which become immediately unavailable, lost to blockades alongside food and water. For many, treatment is no longer an option as death becomes inevitable, often beneath the rubble of once vibrant neighbourhoods, alongside the most vulnerable among us. Patients who were already struggling to survive even in times of peace.
This note is dedicated to every individual that TIF represents across the world who has lost their lives in the wake of war and conflict, or who have lost any hope of resuming treatment and receiving care, and are destined to leave this world in conditions where dignity is denied despite their daily and desperate struggle to survive, consequent to their chronic and hereditary disease.
