phjackpot Polio Threatens Gaza Today. Tomorrow, It Could Be Cholera.

In August, health officials recorded the first case of polio in Gaza in more than 25 years, in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby whose lower left leg became paralyzed by the virus. Sadness and frustration washed over me when I first heard the news. It is outrageous that polio — which is highly contagious and can cause paralysis, respiratory failure, cardiovascular collapse and even death — has been permitted to reappear in Gaza after being nearly eradicated across the globe.

In response, the World Health Organization and other groups began a huge campaign to vaccinate more than 640,000 children in Gaza. As a humanitarian worker with Medical Aid for Palestinians, I’m part of that effort. I’ve worked tirelessly with our team and the W.H.O. to monitor the quality of the vaccination process. It is a daunting task to inoculate hundreds of thousands of children in an area under constant attack, especially because two doses are needed some weeks apart. And yet against all odds, we’ve been able to administer the first doses of the polio vaccine to 559,161 children. I have been heartened by the number of parents striving to protect their children from polio in such dangerous circumstances, and I am proud to be working on this huge public health effort.

Nevertheless, the continued threats to these children’s lives is distressing. Israel’s military agreed to a series of “humanitarian pauses” in select locations for the vaccination campaign. But what is the logic of allowing the vaccination of children for polio today, when tomorrow they will be threatened by cholera or another disease? Or struck by bombs or other weapons? Or subject to starvation? Celebrating the success of the vaccination campaign rings hollow when other dangers facing children in Gaza remain. Because of Israel’s military offensive, we are witnessing conditions that could allow infectious diseases to run rampant throughout Gaza and break out into the rest of the region.

Some two-thirds of all of Gaza’s buildings may have been damaged or destroyed by the Israeli military, and its siege has largely cut off access to food, water and electricity. About 1.9 million people have been displaced from their homes, myself included, and more than 10,000 children have been killed. Hospitals have been hit in what U.N. investigators call “deliberate attacks,” and only 17 out of 36 are even partially functioning.

This has led to a steep erosion of sanitation and humanitarian standards. A vast majority of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have been forced to evacuate into an overcrowded area that takes up only 11 percent of Gaza. This designated “humanitarian zone,” still frequently hit by Israeli military airstrikes, is far from humane. Water lines that supply the area have been cut, sewage floods the streets, and people have no choice but to live in tents because of constant evacuations and bombings. Many have been forced to use seawater contaminated with untreated sewage to wash themselves and their clothes. There is almost no soap or washing liquid available to buy.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore authorities said they had been monitoring an adjacent house that had sustained damage because of the initial house collapse.

As a result of these conditions, Gaza is facing a tidal wave of infectious disease that is already emerging. On a daily basis, our team’s medical points in southern Gaza now see around 180 children with skin rash diseases, such as impetigo and chickenpox. We treat what we can, but we don’t always have enough medication. Since last October, the United Nations has reported more than 40,000 cases of hepatitis A, compared with only 85 in the same period before. Cholera is not yet here yet, but many doctors fear it is only a matter of time.

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