Over the past two months, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has repeatedly warned of the dangers of running out of the hormone erythropoietin, which helps treat patients with kidney failure and symptoms from anemia who are not yet on dialysis, the Middle East Monitor reported on Wednesday.
Dr. Alaa Helles, director of pharmacy at the Ministry of Health, said lack of access to the hormone will lead to serious consequences for patients with renal failure and chronic renal failure.
Worst side to the Israeli imposed siege on #Gaza is the medical side. A global pandemic, May escalation after math, lack of medicine & advanced medical machines, power outages, all push the fragile health sector in Gaza to the edge of the edge.
— Omar Ghraieb🇵🇸 (@Omar_Gaza) September 17, 2021
Dr. Helles explained that blood transfusions are not without risk, especially for those who are preparing for transplants, but if patients are unable to access the hormone the process can be disrupted completely as it causes hemoglobin levels to reduce and patients to be unwell.
In the Gaza Strip, there are 1,050 patients who receive hemodialysis in five central centers in the Strip, and they need more than 10,000 injections of the hormone each month.
israel refuses to grant Palestinian breast cancer patients exit visas from Gaza, for treatment abroad, thereby giving them a death sentence, since hospitals in Gaza lack the facilities and medicine to treat cancer because of the israeli siege. pic.twitter.com/0T7hgDJ70S
— mohammed musleh 𓂆 (@MohammadMusle18) August 29, 2018
Israel has imposed a stifling siege on the Gaza Strip since 2007, limiting the supply of medicine, medical equipment and other essentials. Patients are often forced to apply for treatment in the occupied West Bank, Jerusalem or abroad in Egypt or further afield. However, access to such treatment is subject to Israeli approvals.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
