Middle East, Simeup: ‘Serious emergency in Gaza, especially for children’

Naples, 27 September (LaPresse) – The Italian Society of Paediatric Emergency Medicine ‘strongly condemns the extremely serious health emergency in Gaza, where the population, particularly children, is deprived of basic healthcare resources, with irreparable consequences in both the short and long term’. In a statement, SIMEUP points out that “data published by the WHO, UNICEF and OCHA paint an alarming picture, which is set to worsen dramatically. Since the beginning of the conflict, there have been an estimated 25,000 deaths among children; approximately 12,000 children under the age of 5 are suffering from acute malnutrition, severe in over 25% of cases, in a context of extremely limited or no access to primary care. Endemic malnutrition and undernourishment have a dramatic impact on infant mortality, starting from the neonatal period, also due to the high rates of undernourishment among pregnant and breastfeeding women. The medium- and long-term consequences of malnutrition affect the entire paediatric population, with serious impairment of psychophysical development and secondary immune deficiency. The destruction of health facilities and the lack of drinking water and basic sanitation contribute devastatingly to the epidemic spread of infectious diseases, especially gastrointestinal diseases, with a recorded increase in cases of hepatitis A and other severe infections, often with fatal outcomes.