Infectious diseases sweeping Gaza; another blow to healthcare system

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The New York Times
12 Dec 2023 15:23
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Illnesses and diseases are tearing through the survivors of the aggression.

People mourn by the bodies of Palestinians killed following Israeli bombardment, including three children from the Harb family, at al-Najjar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 12, 2023. (AP)

Amid the turmoil Gazans have found themselves in due to "Israel's" genocidal war, with the lack of clean water, food, medicinal aid, overcrowded shelters, and the cold weather of December, illnesses and diseases are tearing through the survivors.

As Gaza remains deprived of aid and with the constant reckless bombardment that destroys hospice facilities and aid coming into the Strip, those who have fallen ill find themselves unable to receive treatment as doctors scurry the limited resources they still have to Palestinians who have been injured by Israeli strikes.

The catastrophic collapse of Gaza's healthcare system has made it unfeasible to collect data on the exact number of people and children consumed by illnesses, but the World Health Organization, with records from the Ministry of Health in Gaza and the UNRWA, reported at least 369,000 cases of infectious diseases. However, Shannon Barkley, the health systems team lead at the World Health Organization’s offices in Gaza and the West Bank, mentioned that the aforementioned number is restricted to southern Gaza and excludes cases in northern Gaza, leading the organization to predict a much higher number.

According to Barkley, contagious respiratory diseases, like cold or pneumonia are among the most common, but milder diseases are circulating, leaving children, the elderly, and immunodeficient individuals at risk of serious health hazards because of the pre-existing grim living conditions Palestinians are forced under.

In a cry to The New York Times, Samah al-Farra, a 46-year-old mother of 10, said her entire family is sick in the middle of her struggle to keep them safe in a Palestinian camp in Rafah. "All of my kids have a high fever and a stomach virus," she said. As a result of sleeping on the bare floor of the camp, Samah and her children have all experienced burning fevers, chronic diarrhea, and vomiting.

She described the water used for drinking as the same one they use to clean up, which is clearly contaminated, as she said her hands felt dirtier when she washed. She also shared the struggles of her two youngest children, Hala, 6 years old, and Mohammad, 9 years old.

Hala has grown too weak to move or ask for food, even though she had been starving for the past few weeks since they got displaced, developed a rash covering her back, and caught lice that cannot be washed out because her mother cannot afford shampoo, while Mohammad has been seizing due to his chronic fever.

"Israel" claimed on Monday that it was opening a checkpoint at the "Kerem Shalom" Crossing as a corridor for humanitarian aid into Gaza, which, of course, has not taken place yet.

ISRAELI SOLDIERS BURN HUMANITARIAN AID

Immoral and disgusting pic.twitter.com/YNM6Fml2Ol
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) December 11, 2023

Regardless, multiple statements have criticized the rate of aid being allowed into Gaza, saying it is hardly enough, pre and post-ceasefire.

A horror show in Gazan hospitals

A recent report by the WHO dubbed hospitals in Gaza a "horror movie". Richard Peeperkorn, WHO's representative in occupied Palestine, according to an AFP report, said, "We are extremely concerned about the resumption of violence," adding that "the health system in Gaza has been crippled by the ongoing hostilities."

According to Peeperkorn, the health system in Gaza "cannot afford to lose more hospitals," noting that only 18 out of the 36 hospitals in the Strip are currently operating, with only three hospitals in the north that are barely operative.

Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, an emergency coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, spoke to The New York Times from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza and said that hospitals have surpassed their capacity at handling new-coming patients. Doctors have had to make the impossible choice of prioritizing patients with trauma injuries from Israeli strikes, but even they cannot get full and proper medical care due to the very limited resources hospitals have. Marie also said that patients cannot get the post-op care they need resulting in severe infections due to the unsanitary conditions Palestinians are exposed to.

Vinegar from the corner shop to treat pseuodomonas bacterial wound infections. Its come to that. pic.twitter.com/mEE4haHMyj
— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) October 19, 2023

“There’s a very big focus on the wounded and the injured patients, but it’s the entirety of the health care system that is just being brought to the ground,” she added.

Ameera Malkash, a 40-year-old Gazan, described the scene at the hospital when she took her son hoping to treat him as he turned extremely pale. The hospital in Khan Younis was flooded with civilian casualties due to the Israeli bombing, which prompted doctors to turn her down. The day after, a doctor at the hospital told her that her son was infected with Hepatitis A; a bacterium that has spread rapidly among Palestinians through the water they shared.

Thomas White, the director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, issued a warning just last week about the escalating Hepatitis A outbreak in the region, emphasizing the overwhelming challenges faced by UNRWA schools-turned-shelters due to the extensive displacement in the southern areas.

"At one of our schools, we've now had an outbreak of Hepatitis A," he said.

In an interview for the BBC, White acknowledged the significant difficulties in maintaining sanitation within the shelters, where people are densely packed into classrooms, with an average of 150 individuals sharing a single bathroom.

"At one of our schools, we've now had an outbreak of Hepatitis A"@TomWhiteGaza informs @BBCNews that the risk of disease in📍#Gaza is very present as our schools - set up to shelter 1,500 people - are averaging over 6,000 people sheltering in the south. pic.twitter.com/tu4DqMuv1h
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 1, 2023

Palestinian Health Minister, Mai al-Kaila, said about 1,000 cases of hepatitis A had been recorded in the Gaza Strip last week.

Catastrophe, Disaster, Apocalypse

On Sunday, Dr. Marwan al-Hamase, who serves as the director of Rafah's Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital, reported that his modest facility was currently hosting hundreds of displaced individuals who had to sleep on floors where the injured were being treated. Dr. al-Hamase highlighted that these floors had not been cleaned for weeks due to the unavailability of cleaning products.

The situation has escalated to a point where malnutrition is spiraling out of control, according to Dr. al-Hamase. He noted a significant rise in cases of anemia and dehydration among children, with the number nearly tripling.

Displaced Palestinians seeking shelter in UN-managed facilities are having to use communal bathrooms lacking running water. The accumulation of fecal matter on the streets poses a risk of disease spread and further contamination of water sources, warned WHO's Barkley.

Firas al-Darby, a 17-year-old residing in a UN school-turned-shelter in the southern region, shared that he has been grappling with a fungal infection covering his entire body for weeks. He expressed concern about the pervasive presence of bacteria, filth, and the potential for more disease outbreaks throughout the school.

The crimes committed by the Israeli occupation in #Gaza persistently surface before the entire world, even during an ongoing truce.

The most recent atrocity involved shocking footage and images of decomposing infants' bodies discovered in Al-Nasr Children's Hospital in the… pic.twitter.com/1glC4wp5se
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) November 29, 2023

The world has run out of words to describe the situation in Gaza. It is a berserk of ailment and death that "Israel" has created.