Tuesday 23 July 2024
Briefing notes for UNOG Palais briefing
Dear Journalists,
Following requests for more detail about an update on Gaza provided by WHO at the regular UN press briefing held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva this morning, please find notes below. These are from Dr Ayadil Saberkov, Team Lead for Health Emergencies at WHO in the occupied Palestinian territory who briefed the Geneva- based press corps from Jerusalem.
Update on Hospitals
- 16/36 hospitals partially functional, inpatient bed capacity 1532, down from 3500 before the war
- 45/105 primary health care facilities functional
- 8/10 field hospitals functional; 4 partial and 4 fully
- Hospitals overwhelmed:
o Given the strike in Khan Younis yesterday, Nasser Medical Complex faces a new mass casualty influx, amid a dire lack of blood units, medical supplies and hospital beds. On Thursday, WHO provided medical supplies enough for 10,000 people to the hospital, which are being used to manage this mass casualty incident.
o According to MoH data, the hospital received 70 fatalities and an estimated 200 injuries.
o 40 injuries were also taken to Al Aqsa, hospital at full capacity
o Some injuries also referred to IMC and UK-Med field hospital
- Gradual restoration continues at Al-Shifa Hospital
o WHO and partners conducted a mission to Al-Shifa yesterday. Due to delays the mission was only partially completed since the team was unable to visit Al-Helou and Patient Friendly Hospital for assessment.
o Implementation of plans to rehabilitate the outpatient department, which was burnt and destroyed in March 2024, is underway. The aim is to rehabilitate the structure to convert it to an emergency department to resume emergency health services (surgery and emergency care). This includes new walls, adequate for ambulances and pedestrians, and installation of solar panel for electricity.
o Within emergency department, the following rooms will be available: surgical and internal medicine consultations, two operation theaters for minor surgical procedures and sterilization, casting and stitching, resuscitation (two rooms), intensive care unit, pharmacy, registration, waiting area.
o Only functional equipment that remains at Shifa is a stationary X-ray machine. All other major equipment is needed to restore the hospital’s functionality.
o Al-Shifa’s hemodialysis unit continues to be operational and is providing services to 60 patients from Gaza city and north Gaza. The department has 22 hemodialysis machines.
o To improve hemodialysis services the following is needed: dialysis nurses, restoration of the water treatment, additional dialysis devices, dialysis medications and consumables.
o Other partners are working to fix electrical system and water and sanitation.
o Health workers continue to work without pay.
o WHO is supporting planning to deploy emergency medical teams to bolster restoration efforts.
Update on Evacuation of Children to Spain
- 16 children along with 25 companions evacuated by Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) from Gaza to Egypt in will be transferred to Spain on 25 July. WHO in collaboration with European Commission Emergency Response Coordination Center and the Government of Spain is facilitating this medical transfer.
- There are 13 injured minors, one cancer patient and two with chronic heart disease.
- The children were evacuated over a span of months before the closure of the Rafah border.
Polio
- On 16 July 2024, the Global Polio Laboratory Network (GPLN) notified the detection of six circulating variant poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) isolates in environmental samples from Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in Gaza. Further genomic sequencing of these isolates by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta indicates that these isolates have close genetic linkage with each other and are also related to the cVDPV2 that was circulating in Egypt during the second half of 2023 – which was last detected in Egypt in samples collected in December 2023.
- Based on the analysis of genetic changes in the isolates, the variant poliovirus could have been introduced in Gaza as early as September 2023.
- WHO considers there to be a high risk of cVDPV2 spread within Gaza, and internationally if this outbreak is not responded to promptly and optimally.
- It is important to note that poliovirus has been isolated from environmental samples only at this time; no associated paralytic cases have been detected. However, acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance has not been functioning adequately, and environmental surveillance has been suspended since 7 October 2023.
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