The humanitarian situation is deteriorating: chickenpox and cholera threaten children in the Gaza Strip

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Polluted water, lack of food and contagious diseases: the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic. Following Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,400 people, the enclave’s water supply has been severely limited. Food and fuel are also hardly available anymore.

Now infectious diseases are also spreading in the region. This is reported by health organizations that work there, the UN Emergency Relief Office (Ocha) announced on Sunday. The diseases could pose a major threat to the civilian population if care is not resumed quickly, the report said. Experts warn in particular about the following diseases:

Adam Levine, chief of global emergency medicine at Brown University in Providence, US, told NBC News: ‘We know that infectious diseases are emerging in conflicts around the world, whether in Africa, the Middle East or South Asia. is actually causing more civilian casualties. bombs or bullets.”

Without access to clean water and sanitation, the population is defenseless against viruses and bacteria, the expert continues. “People are forced to drink or cook with contaminated water.” The water is probably so polluted that it leads to serious intestinal diseases such as cholera.

According to doctors, children are at greatest risk because they have a much smaller blood volume than adults. This causes them to dry out faster. An outbreak of cholera or other diarrheal diseases could have particularly serious consequences for Gaza’s population, as almost half are 18 years or younger.

In addition to diarrheal diseases, respiratory infections are also increasing. People live in very small spaces. This ensures mutual infection and rapid spread. Ahmad Moghrabi, head of plastic surgery at Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, is seeing increasing numbers of flu cases. It’s only a matter of time before Covid-19 cases appear. However, there are no testing options or vaccinations, says Moghrabi. “That is currently impossible.”

Cramped spaces also promote an outbreak of scabies. The skin disease leads to itchy rashes, which in turn leads to abscesses. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the disease affects the world’s most disadvantaged populations, especially people living in overpopulated and impoverished areas. Camp-like conditions such as those currently prevailing in the southern Gaza Strip are also among the risk factors.

Chickenpox is also on the rise in the Gaza Strip. The acute, highly contagious disease spreads extremely quickly among large groups of people. Chickenpox causes an itchy rash that usually starts on the scalp and face and then spreads.

Transmission occurs via droplets, aerosols, or direct contact with respiratory secretions and almost always leads to illness in susceptible people. Because people in precarious living conditions may increasingly have weaker immune systems, higher outbreak rates can be expected the longer the current situation lasts.

Fear of measles is also growing among doctors in the region. Because: According to the WHO, the highly contagious virus first reappeared in the Gaza Strip in 2020, because the vaccination rate had dropped. Although no new cases have emerged so far, doctors say it only takes one case in a crowded accommodation for a wave of infections to break out.

According to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, at least a hundred trucks of aid are needed every day to supply the distressed civilian population in the Gaza Strip. The UN on Saturday welcomed the first convoy of humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip, which is under constant fire. But this is only a fraction of what is needed to help people sustainably. (An)

Source: Blick