An official at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip warned of the spread of epidemics and infectious diseases among the population, after monitoring 553,000 cases of infectious and epidemic diseases since last October, including more than 8,000 cases of hepatitis A infection.
Dr. Rami Haider Al-Abadla, Deputy Director General of Primary Care for Public Health in Gaza, in his interview with Sky News Arabia, attributed the spread of epidemic diseases to overcrowding among the displaced, low levels of hygiene, non-potable water, scarcity of medicine, and food shortages, with the Israeli attacks continuing for 7 days. October.
553 thousand infections
Al-Abadla says regarding the observed cases:
The total number of cases registered with the Ministry of Health for epidemic and infectious diseases amounted to about 553 thousand infections, from last October 28 until January 8.
- The Ministry began the process of epidemiological monitoring from all parts of the Gaza Strip from October 24 to January 8, but the monitoring data began to shrink as a result of the Israeli attacks and the destruction of many primary care centers, while collection is currently underway from Rafah government clinics and shelter centers affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees.” UNRWA.”
- The data collection process is conducted with great difficulty due to the destruction of computer programs, communications outages, and severe crowding in clinics.
8 thousand cases of hepatitis A
In his explanation of the type of diseases and epidemics, Al-Abadla adds that what has been observed:
- 234,364 cases of pneumonia.
- 170,794 cases of diarrhea.
- 140,000 skin diseases.
- More than 8,000 cases of hepatitis A infection, including 6,723 cases of children.
- In addition to cases of measles and other infectious diseases.
Risk factors
The Deputy Director General of Primary Care for Palestinian Public Health warns of the increase in cases of these diseases, especially infectious ones, due to the availability of the appropriate environment for this, including:
- Extreme overcrowding in shelter centers, as the number of displaced people in each center ranges from 3-5 thousand people, and about 50 people in each room.
- Overcrowding in homes that are still inhabited, as well as in tents.
- Lack of potable water and water necessary for personal hygiene.
- Poor and lack of food, and the lack of food in sufficient quantities, and the food available is mostly canned food that contains preservatives.
- Lack of personal hygiene tools.
- Destruction of sanitation infrastructure.
- The spread of waste in public places and displacement centers.
- Absolutely inability to isolate infected people from uninfected people.
- Lack of medications that help in the healing process.
- The lack of hospital beds to accommodate cases requiring medical follow-up, as the occupancy rate in hospitals reached about 350%, and there are no places to treat internal cases, as all hospitals have turned into emergency and surgical hospitals.
Accordingly, Al-Abadla called for the need to stop the Israeli bombing immediately, and to work to provide water and hygiene materials and reduce crowding.
The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, Thomas White, previously spoke about one of the agency’s schools witnessing an outbreak of “hepatitis A.”
The war waged by Israel against Hamas in Gaza and sparked by the armed movement’s October 7 attack on southern Israel led to unprecedented destruction in the small coastal enclave, claiming the lives of more than 24,927 Palestinians and wounding more than 62,000, according to statistics from the Hamas Ministry of Health. .
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that UN agencies “cannot provide humanitarian aid effectively while Gaza is subjected to such violent, widespread and sustained bombardment.”
2024-01-20 22:19:21
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