ICRC opens 14 first aid centers in Baghdad

The International Committee of the Red Cross has opened 14 first aid centers in Baghdad. Volunteers are working there day and night, the ICRC reported.

Hospitals in the Iraqi capital have thus far been coping with the situation. Surgeons from other hospitals have come to help their colleagues in major hospitals receiving the injured, according to the Red Cross.

The ICRC stressed that the ICRC had surgical materials in plenty in Baghdad.

For the last five days the ICRC has rendered immediate assistance to the hospitals that had been visited by its officers. The hospitals were provided with surgical sets, sutural and dressing materials, surgical instruments, anaesthetics and blankets. An electromechanical and other immediate restoration and maintenance works were conducted: a reserve generator for the surgery deparment was installed in Al-Kindi hospital. In Ibn-al-Nafis hospital the generator was repaired.

The ICRC stressed that the number of people with chronic diseases such as diabetes, asthma or cardiovascular diseases who were taken to hospitals along with the injured was increasing.

The ICRC officers have visited Baghdad's lunatic asylum Al-Rashad, children's centers, centers for homeless children and other institutions of the sort, estimated their basic needs and provided a variety of assistance. Officers of the International Committee of the Red Cross provided medical and social institutions with potable water, repaired sanitary equipment and water storage systems, and checked reserve generators.

No heavy shortage of food, water and medical materials has been registered as of today, the ICRC said.