Taiz dialysis centre warns it could shut within days as siege tightens

The dialysis centre at the Republican Hospital in Taiz, Yemen, could shut down completely within days, according to its director, Dr Essam Mahyoub Dahan. The centre serves 270 patients who depend on dialysis, a treatment that filters waste from the blood when the kidneys cannot do the job.

Al Jazeera reported that sessions have already been cut from four hours to two and a half hours. The reason given is the siege, along with shortages of diesel and medical solutions. The hospital has no reserve diesel. It buys fuel on the black market almost every day, at prices five times what they were before the siege.

The pressure began in early October. The renewed Houthi siege of Taiz city started in the first week of the month, after Houthi forces advanced into the surrounding countryside. A siege means the city is cut off, with movement and supplies restricted. Yemen's Ministry of Health normally sends dialysis supplies to the Taiz centre every three months. A delivery due earlier this month did not arrive because of the siege.

The problem extends beyond one hospital. In an October 12 statement, the health office for Taiz governorate, the province around the city, warned that continued siege could endanger 1,110 kidney failure patients who rely on dialysis in its hospitals. Hospitals across the governorate together provide about 210 dialysis sessions a day.

Deaths have already been reported. The Intercept reported on October 20 that at least 10 kidney failure patients near Taiz died because they could not reach treatment during the siege.

Earlier coverage had warned about the wider health system. Al Jazeera reported on October 11 that emergency care, surgery, intensive care, dialysis and neonatal services in Taiz could be forced to stop if the siege continued. The World Health Organization also issued a news release on October 22 on fuel and medical supply shortages in Taiz, which it said threaten lifesaving health services while access remains severely restricted.

Amnesty International has called on the Houthis to reopen the main roads into and around Taiz. Amnesty warned that closure of the Taiz-Aden main road threatens hundreds of thousands of civilians with the loss of food, water and access to healthcare.