Skin diseases are rampant in Gaza; children are taking the brunt

Khan Younis: Officials inform that skin diseases are running rampant in refugee camps in Gaza, and children are taking the brunt of it. Worried parents are flocking to dermatologists with their children as their condition falls worse day by day, the Associated Press reported.

Skin disease range over a list of its kinds, with children developing red and white spots, rashes, open sores from scratching, lesions, etc.

According to experts, the rampant spread of skin diseases is because of the appalling conditions of the overcrowded tent camps, which house millions of displaced Palestinians.

There are issues of severe summer heat, pools of open sewage that happened after the destruction of infrastructures following ten months of Israeli bombings, etc.

The World Health Organisation reports that there were more than 103,000 cases of lice and scabies and 65,000 cases of skin rashes.

Following the breakout war, the war-torn enclave reported more than 1 million cases of acute respiratory infections, while the total population of Gaza is a mere 2.3 million.

There were more than half a million cases of acute diarrhoea reported, along with more than 100,000 cases of jaundice. Personal hygiene is a question since there are no options for soaps or shampoos. Even the water is dirty. The solid waste management system here also collapsed.

More than 1.8 million of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes, often moving multiple times over the past months to get away from Israeli ground assaults or bombardment. The vast majority are now crowded into a 50-square-kilometer (20-square-mile) area of dunes and fields on the coast with almost no sewage system and little water.

The distribution of humanitarian supplies, including soap, shampoo and medicines, has slowed to a trickle, U.N. officials say, because Israeli military operations and general lawlessness in Gaza make it too dangerous for relief trucks to move.