As the Israel-Hamas conflict continues, there’s growing concern about how the situation may raise the risk of disease and illness in Gaza.
There could be more deaths in Gaza from disease and a broken health infrastructure than from bombs and missiles, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
“Eventually, we will see more people dying from disease than we are even seeing from the bombardment if we are not able to put back [together] this health system and provide the basics of life: food, water, medicines and of course fuel to operate the hospitals,” WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said Wednesday.
In most wars, many more people become ill and die from the indirect health impacts of conflict than from the direct effects of bombs, bullets and other weapons, said Dr. Barry Levy, an adjunct professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and author of “From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War.”
These indirect impacts are mainly caused by the destruction of civilian infrastructure, which provides food, water, shelter and health care, as well as by forced displacement.
Indirect health impacts include cases of infectious gastrointestinal diseases such as cholera, mainly due to reduced access to safe water, and contagious respiratory disorders such as measles, tuberculosis and Covid-19, partly due to crowded living conditions. The reduction of public health services, such as immunizations and actions to control disease outbreaks, as well as increased malnutrition can also contribute to the occurrence and severity of infectious diseases.
