With Ukraine’s conflict zone cut off from insulin supplies, concerns for diabetics escalate

CNN — Continuing to face attacks from Russian forces, Ukrainian hospitals are strained by growing numbers of casualties and finite medical supplies. “There’s been significant shortages of insulin across the country and many, many actors and people in different areas calling out for that supply,” Kate White, an emergency program manager for Doctors Without Borders, told CNN. “So it’s about working with others on the ground to figure out a way the supplies can still get to all the places that they need to.” Hundreds of facilities in the conflict zone World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that there are over 300 Ukrainian health facilities along conflict lines or in areas that are under Russian control. “There’s cities in the east that are inaccessible or barely accessible and are desperate for any kind of supplies they can get,” said Chris Skopec, executive vice president of global health for Project Hope, an organization that is providing disaster relief in Ukraine, including supplies of insulin. Other threats to insulin supply Dr. Nuha El Sayed, vice president of health care improvement at the American Diabetes Association and an endocrinologist at Harvard Medical School, said glucose testing supplies are also needed.