Thousands of people in Ukraine have suffered complex injuries due to the war and need rehabilitation centers and special equipment to help them, a senior official said today World Health Organization.

These people have fractures, spinal cord injuries, brain damage, burns, while in some cases they have suffered amputation, said Dr. Satish Mishra, in a press conference he gave.

Attacks on health care facilities, the fact that the number of health workers has decreased due to displacement and power outages make it difficult for these people to access care centers, he added.

Even before the war, in 2019, half of Ukraine’s population could benefit from the establishment of rehabilitation centers for non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes, commented another WHO Europe official, Dr. Cathal Morgan. Since then, the pandemic and war have greatly increased the need for rehabilitation centers, so much so that they are now considered “urgent”.

By comparison, about 2 in 5 people in the rest of Europe had a condition in 2019 that could be treated by rehabilitation services, according to Morgan.