In a harsh winter, viruses attack the fragile bodies of Gazans

The road to hospitals in the Gaza Strip for treatment is so contaminated that those crossing it must leap over layers of mud, filth, and tattered tents, reflecting the multifaceted health and environmental catastrophe and revealing the fragility of Gazans’ bodies today.

Patients leap over pools of sewage, their weary faces hiding behind masks that evoke memories of the great pandemic (COVID-19). Barefoot children emerge from windswept tents on either side of the road, wearing clothes that offer no protection against the freezing weather or the spread of disease.

This is how Gaza City appears today: a body riddled with the repercussions of a war whose effects continue to seep into the water, the air, the roads, and the bodies of its people.

In hospitals, the crowds are so dense that you have to move slowly through packed corridors, lined with weary bodies waiting their turn.

Here at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, those injured in the recent bombing raids share the corridors with a new wave of patients, driven to these already overburdened hospitals by what doctors call a “mysterious virus.”

A nurse is fitting an oxygen mask to a woman choking on a severe cough, while on the opposite bed, another holds a thermometer for a frail child who struggles to open her eyes.

Around them, the dry coughs echo from every corner, and the smell of medicine and inhalants mingles with the heavy breaths of men, women, and children, their bodies thin and their faces pale, taking turns sitting on plastic chairs, waiting their turn in a healthcare system that not only survived the war but was among its first and most prominent and shattered components.

Dr. Mu’taz Harara, head of the emergency department at Al-Shifa Hospital, told Al Jazeera Net that over the past two weeks, the department has seen an average of more than 500 patients visiting daily. Around 200 of these patients were suffering from acute respiratory illnesses, the most prominent symptoms of which include high fever, shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, diarrhea, persistent vomiting, coughing, and chest pain.

Dr. Harara believes that the varying severity of symptoms among patients is primarily due to their immune systems. Some recover within two days, while others require hospitalization, especially those with chronic illnesses. Sometimes, patients need to be admitted to the intensive care unit if their blood oxygen saturation does not improve with treatment.

The Ministry of Health has been unable to identify the type of virus spreading widely due to a lack of testing capabilities. Dr. Harara stated, “It’s not COVID-19 or the common seasonal flu. The symptoms are more severe, but without the diagnostic tools we have, we cannot definitively identify the virus.”

The doctor points to the emergence of diseases that were not previously so common, such as leptospirosis, a bacterial infection transmitted by rats and rodents. Previously, one case was recorded every three years, but now the hospital is seeing two or three cases every two months.

There has also been a noticeable increase in cases of acute flaccid paralysis. While only a few cases were recorded annually, last month alone saw approximately 20 cases, a number Dr. Mu’taz describes as “a dangerous indicator of the overall decline in health within an already strained healthcare system that lacks sufficient diagnostic capacity.”

He notes that basic tests, such as blood work, are scarce, while CT scans require patients to be transferred to another hospital. Even essential medications like antibiotics and painkillers are unavailable, and the available alternatives are being depleted of stocks intended for other illnesses.