عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

WHO: Malnutrition 'Particularly Extreme' in North Gaza

A Palestinian child is tended to while receiving treatment, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Al-Awda health centre, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
A Palestinian child is tended to while receiving treatment, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Al-Awda health centre, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
TT
TT

WHO: Malnutrition 'Particularly Extreme' in North Gaza

A Palestinian child is tended to while receiving treatment, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Al-Awda health centre, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
A Palestinian child is tended to while receiving treatment, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at Al-Awda health centre, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip March 4, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that malnutrition in northern Gaza was "particularly extreme."
"The situation is particularly extreme in northern Gaza," said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for Gaza and the West Bank.
He said that 1 in 6 children under two years of age were acutely malnourished in northern Gaza.
"This was in January. So, the situation is likely to be greater today," Peeperkorn added.

Gaza health authorities say 15 children have died of malnutrition or dehydration at one hospital in northern Gaza.

Nearly five months into Israel's air and ground assault on the Gaza Strip and resulting mass displacement, acute shortages of food have led to what the United Nations is describing as a nutrition crisis, part of a wider humanitarian catastrophe.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
TT

WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.