Jul 19. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned on Friday that mothers and newborns in the Gaza Strip are in danger not only because of the lack of medical care, but also because of the living conditions in the enclave, where the population suffers from repeated displacement, insecurity and malnutrition.
“In contexts such as Gaza, late access to care is posing a risk to the health of pregnant women and their children, where the health system has been decimated and collapsed, and this can be fatal,” explained Mercè Rocaspana, medical director of the MSF emergency unit.
Nasser Hospital in the south of the Palestinian enclave is the only hospital providing both maternal and pediatric care in Khan Yunis after Israeli forces stormed the center in February, which remained under siege.
MSF teams returned to the hospital in May and managed to reopen the maternity and paediatric wards the following month, although the centre is suffering from a shortage of supplies and the number of patients arriving for treatment is increasing every day, causing the facility to collapse.
According to the NGO, between June 29 and July 5, more than 2,600 consultations were registered in pediatric emergency rooms. This means that the health personnel attend to more than 300 children every day. In addition, there are between 25 and 30 reports per day.
“We are seeing malnourished children, a problem never seen before in Gaza,” said Joanne Perry, MSF’s medical officer at Naser Hospital, adding that the population is living in tents with minimal access to drinking water and poor sanitation.
He also explained that the bombings carried out by the Israeli army in the enclave “have devastated the sewage and water supply systems, causing diarrhoea, dehydration, hepatitis A and skin infections among children.”
Mothers are also vulnerable, as many reach hospitals via unsafe routes amid the bombing, delaying access to healthcare and putting them at greater risk of complications during childbirth.
Mohamed, the supervisor of the MSF nursing team working in the neonatal intensive care unit at Naser Hospital, says that “some women give birth prematurely” and often with postpartum complications due to “their living conditions.”
After giving birth, they suffer “unsanitary” living conditions, as they live in tents, and both the lack of food and constant stress due to bombing put mothers and their children at risk, according to MSF.
“There are no diapers or proper clothing for my baby. Living in a tent exposes them to extreme conditions, without even a proper bed,” said a patient identified as Jadra, who gave birth in the maternity ward of Naser Hospital.
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