UN: Palestinian refugees in Syria suffering from typhoid outbreak

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday that there is a typhoid outbreak among civilians from a besieged Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, with at least six confirmed cases.

Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said its staffers gained access to Yalda, an area east of the Yarmouk camp hosting displaced Palestinian refugees and Syrian civilians, for the first time since June 8 and established a mobile health point.

The UNRWA said in a situation report that its medical personnel provided 211 consultations there on Tuesday and confirmed six cases of typhoid.

The agency noted "credible reports" of a typhoid outbreak in the region, with other cases in Yarmouk, Yalda and two other areas, Babila and Beit Sahem. It said it was authorized to provide limited health assistance and water, sanitation and hygiene supplies to the community.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, typhoid is a life-threatening illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella typhi, which is spread by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. It can usually be treated with antibiotics but can be fatal in some cases without treatment.

UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said in June that before the Syrian war began in 2011, there were 160,000 Palestinians in the Yarmouk camp, many of whom held jobs. Before the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant entered the camp in early April, there were 18,000 refugees, he said, but several thousand have fled since then and the U.N. has not had access.

"UNRWA's priority remains the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians within Yarmouk itself," Gunness said. "Never has the imperative for sustained humanitarian access been greater."

The Associated Press