[News] Explosion of Infectious Disease in Gaza Threatens Public Health

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Explosion of Infectious Disease in Gaza Threatens Public Health

author Monday August 04, 2014 02:49author by IMEMC News - Gaza Ministry 
of Health
*http://www.imemc.org/article/68739*

    /Official Press Release - Ministry of Health/

The people of Gaza face enormous barriers to accessing primary health 
care, with only 10 of the government's 56 Primary Health Care clinics 
operational, eight of UNRWA's 22 clinics open, and most NGO clinics closed.

The majority of displaced persons have no access whatsoever to primary 
health care services. This is at a time when there are urgent public 
health problems arising from the Israeli offensive threatening the 
health of the entire population.

The destruction of the sole Gaza power plant leaves sewage pumps 
incapacitated. The lack of electricity combined with the destruction of 
at least 16 water wells has left 1.8 million people without access to 
water, according to the latest OCHA report.

It also reports that some 10,000 homes have been completely annihilated, 
and 450,000 people forcibly displaced, with 250,000 of them seeking 
shelter in UN facilities only able to cope with a fifth of that number, 
and another 30,000 in government schools and institutions.

The over-crowding and lack of adequate water and sanitation facilities 
has seen the incidence of viral meningitis skyrocket from five per day, 
to 53 cases today.

Diarrhoea and scabies are rampant in the overcrowded shelters, with 
clean drinking water all but impossible to obtain.

Hospitals are also coming under enormous pressure, with large numbers of 
displaced treating them as safe havens. This has created problems of 
electricity overload, garbage, high water consumption, and sanitation 
crises.

Decomposing bodies whose retrieval has been prevented by Israeli 
shelling and aerial attacks continue to pose a significant risk to 
public health. Although dozens have been retrieved during brief 
ceasefires, an unknown number, possibly in the hundreds, still remain in 
Shujeiyah, Beit Hanoun, Khuza'a, and Rafah and will significantly impact 
on the health of the population as displaced persons return to their 
neighbourhoods.

The Ministry of Health Gaza calls on national and international 
organisations to immediately address the looming public health crisis by:

1) restoring the electricity supply as a matter of urgency;
2) providing adequate water & sanitation facilities in shelters for 
displaced persons;
3) providing Hygiene Kits to displaced persons;
4) restoring the sewage pumping capacity as a matter of urgency;
5) providing access to potable water to all residents of Gaza;
6) restoring water wells as a matter of urgency;
7) providing longer-term shelters for the tens of thousands of displaced 
persons whose homes have been completely destroyed, until rebuilding is 
possible, and
8) restoring Gaza's four evacuated hospitals, especially the Wafa 
Rehabilitation Hospital and Al Durrah Paediatric Hospital, to 
operational capacity as soon as possible.

/Contacts:
Dr Yousef AbuAlrish, Deputy Minister of Health: +972 597 918 339
Dr Medhat Abbas, Director General, Ministry of Health: +972 599 403 547
/


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