Hepatitis Takes Hold, Polio Emerges in Gaza

A disease mostly eradicated throughout the world is making a comeback among the wretched conditions throughout Gaza, where nearly all 2.2 million residents have been displaced. The New York Times reports that on Friday, World Health Organization chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed that a poliovirus variant has turned up in a half-dozen samples of water or wastewater in Gaza. The development comes as Palestinians are "forced to live in squalid, crowded camps and makeshift shelters, while basic needs like clean water, sewage treatment, trash collection, soap, and fuel for cooking have grown scarce."

• Polio: The AP notes there have been no confirmed cases of polio in Gaza, but Dr. Ayadil Saparbekov, who heads up the WHO's health emergencies team, says he's "extremely worried" about an outbreak. The poliovirus found in the tested samples is a vaccine-derived virus, meaning it's tied to the weakened live poliovirus found in the polio vaccine. "If allowed to circulate in under- or unimmunized populations for long enough, or replicate in an immunodeficient individual, the weakened virus can revert to a form that causes illness and paralysis," the CDC notes.

• Hepatitis A: The United Nations group also notes that more than 100,000 people in Gaza are also believed to have contracted hepatitis A since Oct. 7. Diseases like hepatitis don't often take hold in the developed world, but they have the potential to thrive in areas with malnutrition and shoddy sanitation.
• Other illnesses: Per the WHO, there have also been a million cases of acute respiratory infections documented, as well as 500,000 cases of diarrhea and 100,000 cases of lice and scabies.
• Gaza's medical infrastructure: The surge in illnesses—combined with Israeli airstrikes and fighting in and around hospitals and medical clinics, and the resulting war injuries—has led to an overwhelmed health-care system. "The situation is indeed dire," Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO's director for the eastern Mediterranean region, tells the Times.
• Spread to Israel? Infectious diseases making their way into Israel is a possibility, per the Times of Israel, with one expert saying it would be "almost impossible" to stop the spread of polio in particular. "The disease does not respect borders," Dr. Lior Nesher, head of the Infectious Disease Institute at Soroka Medical Hospital, tells the paper. Israel's military has kick-started a polio vaccination/booster campaign for its soldiers amid this development.

(More Gaza stories.)