Gaza heatwave deepens crisis as skin diseases surge
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With fuel supplies cut and clean water scarce, Gaza’s hospitals are unable to treat a growing number of skin disease cases as extreme heat grips the enclave.
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Forcibly displaced Palestinian child Sham al-Hessi, who suffers from skin disease amid Israeli genocide, sleeps at a makeshift tent camp in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Monday, July 29, 2024. (AP)
Gaza is witnessing a sharp surge in skin diseases as a relentless heatwave grips the besieged enclave, according to al-Shifa Hospital Director Mohammed Abu Salmiya, as reported by Anadolu.
Abu Salmiya explained that extreme temperatures, combined with a critical shortage of drinking water, are placing residents, particularly children and the elderly, at serious health risk.
He warned that hospitals are struggling to keep essential medical equipment running due to the ongoing halt in fuel deliveries, calling it a crisis that “directly threatens the lives of patients and the injured.”
Despite the worsening conditions, health workers continue to serve under immense pressure. The Israeli military, Abu Salmiya noted, “continues to target schools, hospitals, and tents housing displaced people.”
He described the situation inside Gaza’s hospitals as “catastrophic", emphasizing that the inability to operate life-saving medical devices is deepening the humanitarian crisis “day by day.”
Gaza crisis worsens amid surge in deadly antibiotic-resistant diseases
In a related context, Gaza is facing a new health emergency as antibiotic-resistant diseases spread rapidly across the devastated territory, according to new research.
With medical supplies critically low, over 150,000 injuries, and widespread malnutrition, the presence of multi-drug-resistant bacteria is set to cause longer illnesses, faster disease transmission, and more deaths, experts warn.
The findings, published Tuesday in a peer-reviewed commentary in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, mark the first research since the war began in October 2023 to document the prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria in Gaza.
“This will mean longer and more serious illnesses and a high risk of transmission to others. It means an increased risk of death from really common infections. It means more amputations. It’s a horrible picture,” Krystel Moussally, Epidemiology Advisor to Médecins Sans Frontières, said.
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