Israel has dismantled the health and hygiene systems in Gaza, making even basic illnesses potentially deadly.
Palestinian children, holding empty pots, wait in line to receive food prepared by volunteers for Palestinian families displaced to Southern Gaza due to Israeli attacks, in Rafah, Gaza, on February 10, 2024.There is currently about one infectious disease for every two people in Gaza, according to data released by the Gaza Health Ministry, as experts warn that the avoidance of a large epidemic so far has been “lucky.
In a statement on Monday, Gaza health officials said that they have detected 1 million cases of infectious diseases in Gaza, a situation that the ministry called “extremely catastrophic.” Because of Israel’s six month-long blockade of food, water, electricity, medicine and other basic hygienic needs, cases of infectious diseasesthat they had documented 360,000 cases of infectious diseases in shelters, though this was likely an undercount. Since then, that number has grown three-fold, over the course of just about three months.
Israel’s food blockade and starvation campaign has made Palestinians especially vulnerable to diseases, as their immune systems have been weakened by malnutrition; according tothat the spring season could worsen the disease crisis dramatically.
“Something like cholera, if introduced into the Gaza Strip, would result in a really massive epidemic for the reasons you can imagine: It would be extremely transmissible because people are living on top of each other, there’s not enough water, not enough sanitation,” warned Francesco Checchi, an epidemiologist specializing in diseases in crisis at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in an interview with“It’s the perfect environment for a massive epidemic to take hold,” Checci...
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