Gaza Strip: Skin diseases on the rise amid war and poor hygiene - Video
Mothers sit by the bedsides of their children at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, all suffering from skin diseases linked to poor sanitary conditions.
"We call it a skin disease, but the diagnosis is not known. We don't know what caused it. His whole head was full of boils and he didn't even know how to sleep, neither at night nor during the day," one distressed mother is quoted by the AFP.
Wissam Al-Sakani, spokesperson for Kamal Adwan Hospital, highlighted the dire situation. "There's no street without rubbish, there's no cleaning equipment, there's no nutrition to boost children's immunity to these diseases. Kamal Adwan Hospital receives dozens and hundreds of cases every day. Hardly a child enters a hospital without a skin condition, whether it's the child or the mother. From the Kamal Adwan hospital, we are sounding the alarm to the whole world and to every soul, to intervene and save the lives of our children," he told AFP.
"We arrived at the Kamal Adwan hospital and found that the disease was widespread due to a lack of hygiene and malnutrition among the children... God willing, there will be a cure for this disease," Rasha Khalla, another mother of a sick child, expressed her distress.
The ongoing war in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, has exacerbated the crisis. As of Saturday, July 27, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported that at least 39,258 people have been killed in the conflict.
