Two-thirds of hospitals and a third of clinics in the Palestinian Gaza Strip have halted operations, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned today, warning of the enormous health pressures facing this area, with more than five thousand dead and 15 thousand injured during the conflict.
“We fear a rise in mortality rates among people with chronic diseases,” warned Rick Brennan, WHO’s emergency director for the Middle East.
He also emphasized the danger that fences pose; for example, in Gaza, 200 women give birth every day: “The expectation is that 15% of them will face some kind of complication,” he explained, and in such an unstructured healthcare network it is difficult so that they can receive treatment, for example for bleeding during childbirth.
Similar situations are experienced by patients with kidney problems requiring dialysis and other chronic problems, “who are finding it increasingly difficult to find the services they need.”
All this, he recalled, at a time when more than 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are internally displaced or where water is a scarce resource: “There is between one and three liters available per day per person, with a minimum of fifteen, according to international standards,” he reiterated.
“Almost no one in Gaza has been able to shower or bathe in recent weeks,” Brennan emphasized at a telematics conference from Cairo for accredited press. United Nations in Geneva.
The regional emergency manager reminded us that respiratory infections are increasing in Gaza. Outbreaks of diarrhea and even dermatological problems such as scabies due to water shortages and widespread hygiene problems.
Thanks to the aid transported by 54 trucks in Gaza over the past three days, WHO was able to deliver medicines to three hospitals, although Brennan regretted that nothing could be done at the Turkish hospital in Gaza, mainly for the care of cancer patients, as it is located in one of the areas hardest hit by the attacks.
“Some boxes of supplies were taken directly to the operating tables where doctors worked on operations without anesthesia,” the WHO chief described.
Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
