TEHRAN - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has warned that the conflict in Iran, and the region, is impacting the delivery of health services and the safety of health workers, patients, and civilians present at health facilities.

“Multiple attacks on health have been reported in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in recent days amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East. 

The Pasteur Institute in Iran sustained significant damage and was rendered unable to continue delivering health services,” he wrote on X on Friday. 

“The Institute was established in 1920 and has been operating for over a century in multiple areas of medical research. It plays an important role in protecting and promoting population health, including in emergencies. Two of its departments have been working with WHO as collaborating centres. 

In addition, the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital sustained significant damage due to a strike on 29 March, and the Tofigh Daru pharmaceutical facility, which produced medicines for treating cancer and multiple sclerosis, was damaged in another attack on 31 March. No casualties were reported from these incidents. 

Since 1 March, WHO has verified over 20 attacks on health care in Iran, resulting in at least nine deaths, including that of an infectious diseases health worker and a member of the Iranian Red Crescent Society. 

Attacks on health have also been recorded outside Tehran, including on 21 March, when an explosion nearby Imam Ali Hospital in Andimeshk, Khuzestan province, led to the facility’s evacuation and cessation of services. 

The conflict in Iran, and the region, is impacting the delivery of health services and the safety of health workers, patients, and civilians present at health facilities. Peace is the best medicine.”

Meanwhile, President Masoud Pezeshkian called Thursday on international health organizations and doctors worldwide to respond to what he described as a “crime against humanity” following attacks on medical facilities in Iran.

“What message does attacking hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and the Pasteur Institute (of Iran) as a medical research center in Iran convey?” Pezeshkian wrote on X.

“As a specialist physician, I urge WHO, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and physicians worldwide to respond to this crime against humanity,” he added.

In a separate statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei condemned the strike as “heartbreaking, cruel, despicable, and utterly outrageous.”

“The American-Israeli aggressors have attacked the Pasteur Institute of Iran — the oldest and most prestigious research and public health center in Iran and the entire Middle East, founded in 1920 through an agreement between the Pasteur Institute of Paris and the Iranian government,” Baghaei said on X.

HIGHLIGHT: Since 1 March, WHO has verified over 20 attacks on health care in Iran, resulting in at least nine deaths.