TESTIMONY. In Gaza, the health situation is deteriorating and caregivers are also falling ill, “like most people”

With overpopulation, lack of water and a cooling climate, the UN fears epidemics in the Gaza Strip.

Already 44,000 cases of diarrhea and respiratory problems have been diagnosed in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Diarrhea can have serious consequences. Especially since it is very difficult to get treatment, despite the truce of a few days which allows the entry of humanitarian convoys. The journey of Abeer, a caregiver for the NGO Médecins du Monde, bears witness to this.

Normally, Abeer treats the residents of the Gaza Strip. But with the war she in turn fell ill: “It started more than two weeks ago and it’s gotten more and more serious. I’m coughing, I’m vomiting, I have a feverdescribes Abeer. And I’m not the only one, most people were like that.”says the caregiver.

Hot tea and paracetamol

Abeer had to leave Gaza City under duress, following Israel’s request to evacuate the north of the enclave. She fell ill in one of the UN schools for refugees. The building was overcrowded. The quality of the water was suspect and the living conditions were more than precarious: “We didn’t have a blanket, we didn’t have a mattress. At night, it was very cold. They distributed blankets to us, but it wasn’t enough, there was one blanket per family“, she remembers.

The mother essentially treated herself with hot tea and paracetamol. No doctor visited his refuge school. “I tried to go to another school, just to see the doctor, but I couldn’t, there were so many people waiting.”

Around her, many children also fell ill. “Most have diarrhea, fever. Even newborns have fever, their mothers don’t know what to do”, laments the caregiver. Abeer is lucky to have been able to get out of the Gaza Strip. In Egypt, she bought antibiotics and was back on her feet within days.