However, nearly 215,000 people are not provided with the rations. Food for the displaced people of the Vanni is shamelessly used as a weapon by both warring parties. While the government and its security forces impose embargoes, the LTTE reportedly uses government ration cards for its own ends, including to prompt people to join the movement. Following his visit in January in 2001, the Mannar bishop said people in the Vanni are much affected by the pressing drug shortages. Our children are growing, they get sick often and need medicine to get better.
Malaria is very common.
There is no anti-malarial medicine available on the other side, and if you get malaria, there is no escape. Typhoid, cholera, dysentery, are other frequent ailments, as is brain fever. The sources said the Base Hospital in Vavuniya, which serves a population of 600,000, is in urgent need of upgrading. Old women are dying because of sickness. Relatives are not usually allowed to accompany patients out of the uncleared area to the hospital.