Exploding pagers, radios in Lebanon disrupt its fragile health system: WHO

Explosions in booby-trapped radios and pagers in Lebanon this week seriously disrupted its fragile health sector, the World Health Organization chief said.

The UN health agency cited Lebanese health authorities' toll that 37 people had been killed and more than 3,000 injured in the pager blasts that detonated in areas considered strongholds of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

"These events have seriously disrupted Lebanon's already fragile health system," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference on Thursday, adding that the global body had distributed blood supplies and trauma kits in the country.

"The whole health system came under immense pressure very, very quickly," said WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan at the same briefing.

WHO's representative in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar said 100 hospitals were involved in the response.

A series of drills ahead of the attacks and the stockpiling of emergency supplies helped prepare doctors and nurses in advance and limited the casualties, he said.