WHO: vaccination failures and lack of medicines exacerbates risk of infections in Gaza
World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said that disruptions to routine vaccinations, lack of medicines and a difficult situation in the area of epidemiological surveillance have increased the risk of the spread of infectious diseases in the Gaza Strip, TASS reports
Tarik Jašarević noted that over 1.7 million people were forced to leave their homes and live in overcrowded shelters. According to him, on average 500 people use one toilet and more than 2,000 use one shower, and sometimes there are no toilets in shelters. This has raised concerns about the spread of disease in the region.
A WHO official drew attention to the disruption of routine vaccinations in Gaza, as well as the lack of medicines to treat infectious diseases, which ‘further increases the risk of rapid spread of diseases’. Yašarević said that WHO is studying options for transporting biomaterial samples for testing to Egypt, as well as the possibility of deploying mobile labs in Gaza.
