WHO Director-General: Gaza is on the brink of unprecedented health disaster

GAZA, Sept. 06 (YPA) – Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, affirmed that the health and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip has reached an unprecedented catastrophic level, in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression and the obstruction of the entry of essential aid.

In an official statement issued on Saturday, Ghebreyesus said that the Gaza’s collapsed health system was no longer able to meet the urgent needs of more than 15,000 patients in need of immediate specialized care, including almost 3,800 children in critical condition.

The statement added that the organization was continuing its intensive efforts to evacuate emergency cases requiring treatment outside Gaza “to save what can be saved”.

Indicating the seriousness of the situation, it revealed that more than 100 cases of the rare neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome have been recorded in just one month, noting that 11 people have already died as a result of the disease, which can cause complete paralysis, at a time when medical staff operating under pressure beyond their capacity.

The statement strongly criticized the restrictions imposed on the entry of food aid, stressing that the situation had reached the level of a tragedy.

He added: “People are dying of hunger, while the food that could save them is stuck in trucks only a short distance away.”

Ghebreyesus stressed that the continuation of these conditions not only threatens the collapse of the health system, but also an unprecedented humanitarian and health disaster if urgent action was not taken to stop violations and ensure aid access.

AA