The World Health Organization declared that less than half of Gaza’s hospitals are now functioning, while experts have recorded a “deeply alarming” increase in respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, meningitis and other illnesses in recent days.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, stated that the body was preparing for numerous outbreaks.
He also stated that in the last two weeks there had been some 111,000 cases of respiratory diseases and tens of thousands of cases of diarrhea, rashes, jaundice and chickenpox.
“Gaza has not only lost its hospital capacity, but also its ability to confirm even the most basic diseases,” he said, noting that before the war samples were sent to the West Bank or to laboratories in Israel.
Without that ability, he said there is now “a blind spot where we have a huge risk of epidemic diseases.”
He stated that some 50 patients have already been transferred to other medical centers outside Gaza. Before the current war, Peeperkorn said Gaza had about 3,500 hospital beds; Now it has about 1,500.
Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, said Egypt has made some 11,000 beds available to Gaza patients requiring medical evacuation and said tens of thousands of doctors and nurses will be available to help.
He added that there are currently some 2 million displaced people in Gaza and said that before the war, the region had one of the highest vaccination rates against childhood diseases in the world.
He also warned that without knowing what might happen next in the conflict, it was unclear how long it might take to rebuild the region’s health systems.
“Gaza has the health personnel and expertise to provide health care,” Ryan said. “But we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 24 hours… a lot of these hospitals that we’re supporting are potentially in danger.”
