2023-11-02 12:16:26
“They are forgotten and neglected, and do not find treatments, and death may soon overtake them.” This is how Palestinian doctors and officials who spoke to Al-Hurra website are sounding the alarm about patients with chronic diseases in Gaza, in light of the near collapse of the health system in the Strip.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization warned of a crisis facing people with chronic diseases in Gaza, with more than a thousand patients needing dialysis to survive.
She noted that there are more than 2,000 patients being treated for cancer, 45,000 people suffering from cardiovascular disease, and more than 60,000 diabetes patients.
People with chronic diseases “suffer”
The spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, reveals “a serious crisis facing patients with chronic diseases in the Gaza Strip, in light of the collapse of the medical system in the Strip.”
There are more than 130 premature babies in incubators, 160 patients on ventilators, and 1,100 patients with kidney failure, according to what he told Al-Hurra website.
He points out that there are 9,000 cancer patients, and more than 200 caesarean sections were performed daily, but today they “do not receive medical services,” he says.
Al-Qudra stresses that “they need to obtain urgent and basic health services in light of the shortage of medicines, health supplies, and other assistance, such as fuel, water, and food.”
Disaster looms on the horizon
The media officer at the Palestinian Red Crescent, Raed Al-Nims, confirms that the patients most affected by the “collapse of the medical system in Gaza” are those with chronic diseases.
Due to the scarcity of basic resources, the lack of treatments and medicines, and the inability of patients to leave Gaza to receive some treatments in the West Bank and Israel since the start of the war, the majority of them are “at risk,” as he explains to the Al-Hurra website.
Before October 7, about 100 patients daily needed to leave the Gaza Strip to obtain specialized health services due to the lack of specialized health services, according to Agence France-Presse.
In light of the ongoing Israeli bombing and the lack of “water, medicine, or electricity,” there is a “disaster looming on the horizon,” especially since those with chronic diseases are “the most at risk if the health system completely collapses.”
On the other hand, the Israeli Army Spokesmen’s Unit said earlier to the “Al-Hurra” website that “the Hamas terrorist organization, in a flagrant violation of international law, operates from within civilian facilities (such as hospitals), and thus uses the residents of Gaza as human shields and exposes the citizens of the Strip.” Gaza is at risk.”
She added: “The army is working to evacuate the civilian population from the north of the Gaza Strip to its south, which is an area that has been defined as safer and where humanitarian infrastructure is available.”
She stressed that “not harming civilians during raids on the Gaza Strip represents a common interest for the citizens of Gaza and the State of Israel.”
“In the wind”
Speaking to Al-Hurra website, the head of the orthopedic surgery department at the National Arab Hospital “Al-Baptist” in Gaza, Dr. Fadl Naeem, warns of the lack of attention to patients with “diabetes, cancer, kidney failure, asthma, blood pressure, and cardiovascular diseases.”
Since the start of the war, people with chronic diseases have been “forgotten and neglected,” but they suffer daily, as a result of the lack of medicines and treatments, and the closure of primary care clinics, which puts them “in danger,” as he put it.
He points out that “the lack of treatments and the lack of regular health follow-up” may ultimately lead to serious complications among people with chronic diseases.
In his talk, he addresses cancer patients who are receiving treatment at the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital. After it stopped working, some patients were transferred to different hospitals in the Gaza Strip in an attempt to “follow up their condition.”
But their treatment and follow-up of their health condition “will not be done optimally,” especially since the majority of cancer patients need treatment abroad, whether in the West Bank, the Palestinian interior, or Egypt, and with the closure of the crossings, they lose “their chance to be treated for the incurable disease,” according to Naeem.
On the brink of death
In turn, the director of the Gaza European Hospital, Dr. Youssef Al-Akkad, stresses the need for cancer patients for special treatments, starting with “chemotherapy sessions, then radiotherapy, and some hormone medications.”
Radiotherapy has not been available in Gaza for years, forcing hospitals to refer patients for treatment outside the Strip, which is not happening at the present time, as he explains to Al-Hurra website.
Regarding chemotherapy, 50 percent of these treatments are “unavailable” in the Gaza Strip at all, and in light of the current war and the closure of the crossings, the situation has become “more difficult,” according to Al-Aqqad.
He stresses that these patients need “regular health care, constant follow-up, and regular treatment,” but in light of the current war, it is impossible to “care for them optimally.”
Al-Aqqad warns of complications that may affect people with chronic diseases in general, and cancer patients in particular, and if they fail to receive treatments on time, their fate is “death.”
‘Insufficient’ aid
On Wednesday, 61 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.
272 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip as of November 1, according to the Associated Press.
Despite the slight increase in supplies, the number of aid trucks entering Gaza, an average of 14 trucks per day, is still small compared to the 400 trucks that used to enter Gaza’s residents daily at normal times, according to Archyde.com.
Therefore, the former Dean of the Palestine College of Nursing, Dr. Nabil Al-Najjar, stresses that this aid is “insufficient” to help patients with chronic diseases.
Diabetes, high blood pressure, dialysis, and cancer patients need several treatments, some of which are available in Gaza, but “the UNRWA clinics that assist the Ministry of Health are currently closed, and doctors are not allowed to trade the treatment that is in stock inside them,” according to his talk to the Al-Hurra website.
Although aid is flowing into Gaza, there are no “treatments for those with chronic diseases,” and therefore there is a real crisis facing these patients, Al-Najjar stresses.
He points out that “treatments have decreased significantly,” making the fate of those with chronic diseases “imminent death.”
The attack launched by Hamas on October 7 resulted in the killing of more than 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, including children and women, according to the Israeli authorities.
Israel responded with intense bombing of Gaza, killing 9,061 people, including 3,760 children, 2,326 women, and 32,000 injured, according to the latest statistics of the Hamas Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, on Thursday.
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