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Gaza – Dietician Susan is known for the examination of dozens of children who arrived in the patient’s friends hospital in Gaza City on suspicion of having complications of malnutrition, after symptoms of wasting and weight loss appeared, as Israel has prevented since the beginning of last March to enter food and medicine to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Parents are waiting in a long queue to check on the health of their children, which witnessed a setback due to the loss of healthy food, the absence of fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy derivatives from the market, at a time when local and international bodies specialized in caring for children escalated from an imminent catastrophe of more than 70 thousand children in Gaza.
On the examination bed, the bodies of children appear under the five years, after the symptoms developed on a number of them and their feet are no longer strengthened to carry them.
The disease and its complications
Specialist Suzan Maarouf, to Al -Jazeera Net, says that the closure of the Israeli occupation of the crossings increased the signs of malnutrition in children in Gaza, and the number of visitors increased to the department developed by the Patient Friends Hospital last June, to follow up the health status of children who are subjected to starvation.
She emphasized that the symptoms of malnutrition were transmitted in many cases from the simple to medium stage, and reached the sharp to each other, who suffer from a severe weight loss, weak movement, wasting the body, yellowing of the skin, and breaking the nails.
Susan strives to give children the remaining nutritional supplements with the hospital, after he ran out of high -energy biscuits, and the stock of milk that was dependent on him for treatment, which makes it difficult for her mission.
Susan says that the lack of healthy food and the absence of the necessary treatment for children with malnutrition delays their recovery, which warns of more complications that chase their meager bodies, and adds that the rate of malnutrition has increased in children to more than 10% in recent days.
The food specialist pointed out that children under five years of fragile groups, and the importance of this age stage lies in building their bodies for the future, but the loss of nutrients from vitamins and proteins properly prevents their growth.
She warned that the continued closure of the Gaza Strip crossings will increase the deterioration of children’s health in a frightening way, and that more diseases occur to the spread of more diseases and high feeding rates.
Rescue
On the beds of the disease within the department allocated from the same hospital, small bodies controlled by severe wasting, to receive treatment that helps them to restore their well -being.
“Two months after her birth, signs of deterioration began to show her health condition, until the doctors decided to subjugate her to follow the hospital due to the deterioration of her condition,” says the mother of the child, Siham – who completed her first year moving from one hospital to another in search of care.
The yellowing is evident on the face of the pale baby, which refuses to eat any of the already painful canned food in the markets, which keeps it as sleeping for long hours, in the absence of a healthy food that helps her to recover.
And on a nearby bed, signs of the disease appear to the girl, Salam (7 years), who are no longer able to walk after her feet swelled, and wasting her, until doctors discovered that the reason is due to protein deficiency, and they started to provide treatment and food support until she regains her weight.
Medical teams are keen to regularly provide treatment for the baby’s baby, to overcome the severe weight that has led to severe weakness in her hands and feet.
Growth
The pediatrician Mohamed Abu Shamala explains the main cause of malnutrition, saying that he lies in the lack of the required amount of calories that children eat due to the lack of food available in Gaza.
Abu Shamala, in his conversation with Al -Jazeera Net, expressed his fear of the lives of children under the fifth, because malnutrition affects their future growth, and may cause them diseases at later times of their ages.
The malnutrition departments work in Gaza hospitals according to the criteria set by the World Health Organization by measuring weight, length and arm size, and therefore, children who need care, whether by field follow -up or their inspiration within hospitals, are dealt with if they suffer from severe malnutrition.
Doctor Abu Shamala emphasized that malnutrition has spread among all age groups due to the lack of food resources, warning against increasing it, causing greater complications on children and influencing their immunity if the crossings continue to be closed.
He pointed out that the nutritional supplements provided by doctors as an alternative to vegetables, fruits and healthy food for people with malnutrition are no longer present, and the drugs have run out of all hospitals, which hinders the recovery of sick conditions, and warned that the continuation of the conditions in this case may lead to the death of more children.
Waiting for death
According to the latest statistic issued by government agencies in Gaza, 65,000 children are exposed to death due to malnutrition, after the Ministry of Health announced – earlier – the number of deaths as a result of malnutrition to 57 children.
A joint report issued by the United Nations Fund for Children “UNICEF” and the World Food Program warned of an imminent catastrophe, as it faces 71,000 children and more than 17 thousand mother of the risk of malnutrition, and they need urgent treatment.
The report said that the integrated classification initiative for the stages of food security concluded that 470,000 people in Gaza are facing hunger, and that all the population suffers from a severe lack of food security.
The two international organizations urged all parties to meet the needs of civilians, allow aid to enter Gaza immediately, and fulfill their obligations under international humanitarian law.
