"What are we supposed to do in this life?" At a hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, a mother sits with her sick child as he weeps. Elham Nassar's son has a skin disease and is receiving treatment at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. She is struggling to find adequate care.
Concern spread among Gaza mothers like her after , which is already facing a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies. "We're tired of this life, we're tired of the life we are living — no food, no drink, no medicines," she told the Reuters news agency in Arabic. "At the least, we need medicines for our children, and to protect our children and prevent them from being infected with the polio virus that's now spreading across Gaza.
" Polio was all but forgotten in Gaza until the World Health Organization (WHO) reported in July that the virus had been detected in six environmental samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip. The health ministry in Gaza has confirmed at least one case in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in Deir al-Balah this month, while other cases are suspected. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed on Friday that the affected infant had been partly paralysed from the virus, losing movement in his lower left leg.
This week, a group of aid agencies and medical professionals warned that without urgent action, a mass outbreak could endanger a generation of children in Gaza already suffering through the ongoing Hamas-Israel war. The United.