Infectious Diseases ‘Spiralling out of Control’ in Gaza: WHO
CAIRO (AFP): The World Health Organization has warned that infectious diseases are “out of control” in the Gaza Strip and that only 13 of 36 hospitals in the Palestinian territory are even partially functioning.
“We’re talking about a tremendous amount of work, whether it’s meningitis… diarrhea or respiratory diseases,” Hanan Balkhy, regional director of the United Nations health agency, told AFP in Cairo.
A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas has raised hopes that life-saving aid and healthcare services will finally reach Palestinians in Gaza after two years of war, but Balkhy warned the difficulties were “unimaginable”.
“We need more fuel to go to Gaza, we need more food, more medical equipment, medicine, medics, doctors,” he said in an interview on Wednesday, reiterating demands from international leaders to allow a major increase in aid to Israel.
WHO data shows that Gaza City, the region’s main urban centre, has only eight health facilities, all partially functioning.
The organization says the hospitals still standing are suffering from a shortage of medical staff, facing starvation and a relentless Israeli offensive that has killed nearly 68,000 people, according to the Hamas-ruled region’s health ministry. The UN finds these figures reliable.
According to Balkhy, when people talk about repairing Gaza’s dilapidated hospitals, “the question is how many of them are suitable for rehabilitation or need to be rebuilt?”
“We’re talking billions of dollars and decades of work,” he said, after health care in the region essentially “dissolved.”
-‘There’s very little left’-
According to UN data, healthcare facilities in Gaza have been attacked more than 800 times since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war.
“There’s very little left in the healthcare system. You have children born in the last two years, and I assume most of them have had zero doses of the vaccine.”
The UN says nearly 42,000 people, a quarter of whom are children, have suffered life-changing injuries.
Balkhy again appealed to patients “to have access to the West Bank and Jerusalem, so they can take advantage of the care available nearby, and that’s where they go for care.”
Israel has severely allowed Palestinians to leave Gaza throughout the war, making medical evacuations nearly impossible.
Meanwhile, the mental health needs of more than two million Palestinians trapped under two years of bombardment have more than doubled, according to the WHO.
More than a million people need “urgent support”, but current care is grossly inadequate.
“We really hope that peace can be fully maintained so that we can begin,” Balkhy said. he said.
