Gaza Epidemic
Updated 2024-04-01
2024-03-04 How Warmer Weather Could Fuel a Massive Epidemic in Gaza Amid seemingly endless death, destruction, and displacement, life in Gaza has long been unbearable. At least 30,000 people have been killed and countless more wounded since the start of Israel’s retaliatory bombardment following Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre. And the punishing winter weather, marked by heavy rain and temperatures as low as 48°F (9°C), has made the Strip all but uninhabitable for its more than 2 million inhabitants, many of whom were forced to flee their homes without warm clothes or blankets. Those who manage to find refuge in overcrowded shelters are considered the lucky ones. Others reside in makeshift tents, with nothing but tarpaulin and thin plastics to shield them from the elements.
While many may greet the arrival of spring as a much-needed reprieve from the cold, experts warn that the warmer temperatures come with their own set of challenges—ones that stand to make the situation in Gaza much worse. That’s because warmer weather, while beneficial in some respects, can accelerate the spread of communicable diseases, such as diarrhea and hepatitis A, even as it reduces the risk of others. “As the season changes to spring and summer, you will have a lower incidence of certain infectious diseases: the flu, COVID-19, other respiratory viruses that affect children,” says Francesco Checchi, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine specializing in disease control in crisis. https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/how-warmer-weather-could-fuel-a-massive-epidemic-in-gaza/ar-BB1jjz0K?
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