Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years highlights total collapse of its health infrastructure

Dr. Tammy Abughnaim:

I mean, I would describe it in the way that every humanitarian aid worker who has returned describes it. It’s catastrophic and it’s unacceptably catastrophic.

There seems to be this floating idea that, oh, goodness, the health care system is decimated, it’s incapacitated, it’s crippled. But it’s still somewhat functional. But it is not nearly at the capacity that it should be. And it is not the spontaneous natural disaster that’s happened in Gaza. It’s the result of deliberate targeting and strikes.

And so the things that we’re seeing at Al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital are shortages of supplies because Israel restricts the amount of entry, both of supplies and personnel, that can come in. So on any given day, when I was in the emergency department, we didn’t have a sufficient number of tourniquets. We were reusing supplies that technically should not be reused, like ventilator supplies, intubation stylets.

We were using giant rubber bands as tourniquets. Specialized surgical equipment not being available is also a problem because a lot of these patients require surgical intervention, and they’re simply not able to get it. And these are all the direct result of Israeli-imposed restrictions.