ISLAMABAD, Feb 8: The World Health Organization has planned to airdrop urgent medical supplies in Ghor province in Afghanistan, that has been cut off by heavy snowfalls.

WHO spokesperson Lori Hieber said at a news conference on Thursday that the United Nations health agency was negotiating with the International Committee of the Red Cross to drop medical supplies from helicopter into Chaghcharan, the capitol of Ghor.

The spokesperson said the helicopters would have a medical kit containing drugs, particularly antibiotics, to treat acute respiratory infections such as pneumonia. The medical kit will be dropped in a safe area where local health authorities will ensure safe passage to the provincial hospital, she said.

The spokesperson said clinics in Shahrak, Saghar and Taiwara also had shortage of drugs. Negotiations are underway with the World Food Programme to send in emergency medicines and supplies by road to the three districts provided access was available. The last medical shipments reached Ghor in December, she said.

The spokesperson said the WHO had seven tons of emergency medical kits on stand-by for the province and it was considering all options to bring the essential material to the region, including the further use of helicopters, if necessary.

She said that even if medical supplies reached the clinics, it was unlikely that people living in remote villages would be able to access the clinics. “This may mean that thousands of people are cut off in their villages, without any access to doctors, health care or medicines.”