GAZA, (PIC)
Mohammed Qeshta is extremely worried about his 7-year-old son Ahmed after he was diagnosed with Hepatitis A, due to the ongoing genocide war in Gaza.
With eyes full of frustration, the father expresses his deep discontent at the deteriorating health conditions in the Gaza Strip, and his inability to provide proper care for his sick child.
Mohammed and his family were displaced from the city of Rafah last May after the occupation army invaded the city, to the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Yunis, which is overcrowded with tens of thousands of displaced people in severely poor environmental conditions.
Mohammed, while looking at his son on the hospital bed in Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, says that the Israeli occupation army “is not only killing us with rockets and bullets, but also with disease, and by preventing us from accessing water and cleaning supplies.”
Hepatitis A is a highly contagious liver infection caused by a virus, resulting from consuming contaminated food or drink, or close contact with an infected person.
Cases of hepatitis A have spread in the Gaza Strip, especially among children, due to lack of personal hygiene and water, food contamination, and overcrowding in displacement centers, as a result of the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation army on all the essentials of life.
One of the treating doctors for Ahmed says that they are struggling to provide everything necessary to treat Ahmed and the other patients suffering from the hepatitis virus, despite a severe shortage of medical supplies and equipment.
He explains that Ahmed came to the hospital suffering from jaundice (yellowing of the eyes and skin), severe itching in the body, and swelling in the upper right part of the abdomen that has become soft, which are symptoms that appear in the middle stage of the disease and can develop into more serious symptoms if not treated.
Unlike hepatitis B and C, hepatitis A does not cause chronic liver disease, but it can result in debilitating symptoms ranging from mild to severe, and not all those infected will experience all these symptoms.
The treating doctor adds that all children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from severe wasting and weakness due to malnutrition over months of war, in living conditions so poor that families cannot afford to feed their children properly. He points out that the spread of viral hepatitis is due to the decline in hygiene, water and food contamination, as well as overcrowding in shelters that lack the bare necessities of life.
The southern Gaza Strip areas are suffering from a severe water crisis, where a family can barely obtain 20 liters of clean water per day after the arduous task of standing in line for hours or traveling long distances to get this meager share.
On a bed opposite to Ahmed, a 10-year-old Jenna Alwan lies in a state of severe fatigue, with features that reflect her illness.
Her mother says they have been living in a tent for 7 months and do not receive enough water, and her husband has to resort to using seawater to provide water for personal hygiene, but that did not prevent her daughter from getting sick.
She sadly wonders how her daughter could not have fallen ill when wastewater is flowing between the tents of the displaced, and garbage fills the streets, noting that the efforts she made to prevent Jenna from playing in the surroundings and insist that she stay in the tent did not succeed.
United Nations humanitarian agencies have warned of the increasing risk of the spread of communicable diseases throughout the Gaza Strip, amidst a chronic shortage of water and the lack of adequate means to manage waste and sewage properly.
According to data from the Health Program of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), 800 to 1,000 new cases of hepatitis are being reported weekly from UNRWA health centers and shelters across Gaza.
Cases of epidemic hepatitis have risen from only 85 cases reported before the war, to nearly 40,000 cases reported since the start of the relentless war of extermination on Gaza 10 months ago, according to data from the United Nations institution.
The UNRWA confirms that the deteriorating health conditions facilitate the spread of diseases, including hepatitis A, warning that more children are at risk of contracting the epidemic hepatitis, due to mass displacement, overcrowded shelters, lack of clean water and soap, and other hygiene supplies.
The head of UNRWA’s health program, Dr. Ghada Al-Jadba, says that hepatitis A is widespread among children in Gaza, and more children are at risk of contracting the virus “due to the mass displacement of people, overcrowded shelters, lack of clean water, soap and other hygiene supplies.”
Al-Jadba explains that the displaced families in Gaza live in miserable and inhumane conditions in overcrowded camps and shelters, lacking clean water, hygiene supplies, and proper waste management and sanitation.
She says that 10 months after the brutal Israeli attack on Gaza, the severe restrictions imposed by the occupation on humanitarian access, the lack of adequate medical care and preventive measures, have created a conducive environment for the spread of diseases, including skin conditions, hepatitis, and polio, especially among children in overcrowded shelters.
Dr. Al-Jadba stresses that the continued crisis makes it extremely difficult for UNRWA’s health program to respond to the needs of patients.
More than once, institutions and municipalities in Gaza Strip have said that the Israeli occupation army deliberately destroys water networks, desalination plants, and causes a severe crisis in the availability of drinking water for citizens, in addition to preventing the entry of fuel, which in turn limits the operation of the remaining desalination plants in the enclave, and the systematic targeting of medical facilities and hospitals, which has resulted in the destruction of the health system, a humanitarian disaster, and deterioration of infrastructure.
