Throughout the last two years, Gaza has faced widespread destruction as a result of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the region, including the collapse of its health care system. Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is the last-standing partly-functional hospital in Gaza City. According to a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, infections are spreading rapidly at the hospital due to inadequate resources to provide comprehensive health care.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Bilal Irfan, co-author of the study and a researcher at the University of Michigan, said the study analyzed hospital specimens over 10 months, most of which were from trauma wound materials.
“A major takeaway is that two-thirds of the study sample found there to be multidrug-resistant bacteria in the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City,” Irfan said. “Another major finding is that about 76% of that sample did come from blast- or trauma-related injuries, which speaks to the volume of blast-related injuries that are coming in as a result of the Israeli military assault on Gaza.”