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Infectious diseases are ravaging Gaza’s population, health officials and aid organizations said Monday, citing the cold, wet weather; overcrowded houses; food shortage; dirty water; and a few medicines.
In addition to the crisis in the crisis after more than two months of war, those who are sick have very little treatment, because the hospitals are overwhelmed with patients who were injured in the air raids.
“We are all sick,” said Samah al-Farra, a 46-year-old mother of 10 who struggles to support her family in a refugee camp in Rafah, in the south of Gaza. “All my children have high fever and stomach virus.”
Although the decline in the health of Gaza has made it a challenge to find accurate numbers, the World Health Organization has reported at least 369,000 cases of infection since the beginning of the important, using data collected from the Ministry of Health of Gaza and UNRWA, the UN agency concerned. for Palestine – an increase from before the war.
And even the highest number of the WHO cannot capture the scale of the crisis: Shannon Barkley, the health group that leads the offices of the World Health Organization in Gaza and the The West Bank said it does not include issues in northern Gaza, where the war is ongoing. many houses were destroyed and the remaining health facilities were overwhelmed.
The most common diseases spreading in Gaza are respiratory diseases, said Ms. Barkley, ranging from colds to pneumonia. Even common diseases can pose serious risks to Palestinians, especially children, the elderly and the immunocompromised, because of the bad lifestyle, he said.
Mrs. al-Farra, by phone, said his family had been sleeping on the ground since they fled Khan Younis, a town north of Rafah, last week. For the past three days, Ms. al-Farra, she and her children had a high fever and suffered from constant diarrhea and vomiting.
Like many others in the industry, Ms. al-Farra, he and his family drank the same foul-smelling water they used to wash themselves with.
“When I wash my hands, I feel like they’re dirtier, not cleaner,” he said.
Her youngest child, 6-year-old Hala, spent most of the last three days sleeping and was too tired to ask for food after weeks of starvation, Ms. al-Farra. “He used to beg for more food, but now he can’t keep anything down,” he said. His 9-year-old son, Mohammad, is ill, probably because of his fever, he added.
The Israeli military announced on Monday that it is opening a second checkpoint at the Kerem Shalom Crossing – on the border between Israel, Gaza and Egypt – to check humanitarian aid arriving in Egypt, a move to allow more food, water, medical supplies. and security tools in Gaza. Aid organizations say the rate of aid arriving in Gaza since the collapse of a temporary ceasefire earlier in the week and a half ago is far from over.
The hospitals that are still considered operational are focused on providing critical care for the sick and wounded from air strikes, according to Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, an emergency response at Doctors Without Borders, speaking from Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. But many of those patients receive post-operative care in unsanitary conditions, causing serious illnesses, he said.
And the primary level of health care in central Gaza has fallen dramatically, he said, leaving those in need of medical care without treatment.
“There is a big focus on injured and injured patients, but the whole of health care is just bringing it to the ground,” he said.
One Gazan, Ameera Malkash, 40, said that when she first took her pale and jaundiced son, Suliman, to the hospital in Khan Younis last month, it was full of dead people. from the air raids that day. They could not see a doctor.
They tried again the next day, he said over the phone, and the doctor told them it was hepatitis A — a liver disease caused by an infectious virus. most spread easily in contaminated water. Suliman should have been detained, but there are no rooms left in the hospital, said Ms. Malkash, so they have no choice but to return to a shelter filled with thousands of other people.
Last week, the minister of health of the Palestinian Authority, Mai Alkaila, said that about 1,000 cases of hepatitis A were recorded in the Gaza Strip. The Ministry of Health of the Palestinian Authority is based in the West Bank and is separate from the ministry of health in Gaza.
Dr. Marwan al-Hamase, the director of the Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, said on Sunday that his small house hosted hundreds of refugees, who were sleeping on the floors. it is also treating the injured. Those floors hadn’t been cleaned in weeks, he said, because “we couldn’t find any cleaners.”
Malnutrition has become “uncontrollable,” and anemia and dehydration among children have nearly tripled, said Dr. al-Hamas.
Milena Murr, a spokeswoman for the aid agency Mercy Corps, said that when her friends in Gaza fled their homes two months ago, they were not prepared for the cold and rainy weather. Many did not bring blankets, coats or warm clothes.
Displaced people taking refuge in UN-run camps are sharing bathrooms without running water. And the garbage collected on the roads can contribute to the spread of diseases and further damage water sources, said Ms. Barkley, WHO.
Firas al-Darby, 17, who is at a UN school-turned-shelter in the south, said he had a virus all over his body for weeks. “Bacteria, dirt, disease and disease are on the school,” he said.
Hala al-Farra also had a skin rash, her mother said, as well as lice. Said Ms. al-Farra thought of cutting Hala’s hair because she could not afford shampoo.
“I don’t know how I can help my children,” said Mr. al-Farra. “Now I’m going to knock on people’s houses and beg for clean water.”
Abu Bakr Bashir and Aaron Boxerman correct report.
December 12, 2023
:
An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of a Mercy Corps spokesperson. She is Milena Murr, not Muir.
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