More than three years of violence have dismantled the already very fragile health structures in the Central African Republic (CAR), bringing the government service delivery capacity to a complete stop, and leaving thousands of people vulnerable to diseases and with little access to health services, the United Nations humanitarian aid office said over the weekend.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that access to health is very poor throughout the country, except in the capital Bangui, and insecurity also impedes or delays responses elsewhere.

Currently 1 million people are assisted by 31 health cluster partners including non-government organizations and UN agencies. Aid agencies use mobile services to help thousands of displaced in areas not covered by the Ministry of Health's basic facilities.

Preventive activities, primary and secondary health care, all functional referral hospitals, early warning mechanisms and rapid outbreak response capacity and psychosocial support remain essentially reliant on humanitarian actors, OCHA said.