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04-09-2024
DEIR EL-BALAH, GAZA CITY: Maha Abu Shamas, 27, has been getting her four children, all under the age of 10, ready to get their polio vaccines since the early hours of the morning.
Maha, a mother of five, has been living in a classroom in Deir el-Balah’s central Gaza Strip since the family was displaced from Beit Hanoon in the north last November.
“When I heard about the threat of polio spreading, I was terrified for my children. When I learned of a confirmed case of paralysis, I felt like my world had collapsed,” said Maha, holding her nine-month-old boy inside the busy pediatric ward of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the last functioning medical facility in Deir el-Balah.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health last month confirmed the first case of polio, a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in the leg, in the enclave after 25 years, following the detection of poliovirus in wastewater. The United Nations, along with Gaza health authorities, has begun a vaccination campaign to protect children against polio, which can cause irreversible paralysis of the limbs or even death. About 640,000 children under 10 years old will receive oral drops of the vaccine to protect against the virus which primarily affects children under the age of five, is highly contagious and has no cure.
The threat of polio has only compounded Maha’s worries. Displaced parents like her already contend with harsh, unsanitary conditions at shelters like the school where Maha and her children live, and in Gaza’s tent camps, as they try to survive Israel’s war on Gaza which has killed more than 40,700 Palestinians.
“The lack of hygiene is the main feature due to overcrowding, a collapsed infrastructure and a catastrophic health situation,” she explains.
“The school I live in is full of pools of sewage and wastewater,” Maha adds. “I can’t maintain my children’s cleanliness or health in these conditions.”
In addition to taking her children to Al-Aqsa Hospital to be vaccinated, Maha had to bring her youngest child to the pediatric ward after three days of having a high fever and vomiting.
“This is how most of my days pass in the war rushing my sick children to the hospital for treatment due to the spread of diseases, if it’s available,” she says. “If this is how we struggle with minor illnesses like stomach flu, how can we fight serious diseases like polio?”
Maha’s life took a devastating turn last month when her husband was killed in an Israeli air strike near their shelter. “Now, I’m the sole caregiver for five children. It’s overwhelming, but like thousands of mothers in Gaza, I have no choice but to push forward.”
While she welcomes the polio vaccination drive, she points out that this addresses just one threat posed by the dire living conditions. “Malnutrition, hepatitis, skin diseases, exhaustion our children face a range of threats. The real solution lies in improving living conditions and ending the war,” she says. “We’ve endured enough.”
Loss of faith in the international community
For 31-year-old Hanin Abdullah, the decision to vaccinate her children against polio was fraught with hesitation.
Hanin, a mother of three young children, was displaced with her family from Jabalia in northern Gaza, and they now share a cramped space with 25 members of her family. “In the same classroom, about 40 others are packed in,” she says, speaking at Al-Aqsa Hospital, describing her situation as tragic.
The college where she lives is crowded, sewage pools throughout and there are long queues for the toilets. The outside walls are black from the wood fires used for cooking. (Int’l News Desk)
