{"id":101164,"date":"2026-11-14T13:13:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T13:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/101164"},"modified":"2026-11-14T13:13:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T13:13:24","slug":"who-warns-of-rising-respiratory-illnesses-in-gaza-as-winter-floods-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/101164","title":{"rendered":"WHO Warns of Rising Respiratory Illnesses in Gaza as Winter Floods Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"


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GENEVA: The World Health Organization warned on Friday of surging respiratory illnesses in Gaza, with worse expected after heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of tents \u200bhousing displaced Palestinians.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers already show the pressure. Acute respiratory infections are 33,000 \u200ccases higher than at the same time last year,\u201d Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told reporters in Geneva from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Poor living conditions and severe overcrowding are driving up \u200binfections as Gaza\u2019s population is squeezed into an ever-smaller area, WHO said. The crunch \u200bhas worsened as the Israeli military expands its control by advancing the \u201cyellow \u2060line\u201d \u2014 a demarcation established under October\u2019s US-brokered ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means people are living in more crowded \u200bconditions, where of course the spread between humans of a virus is much more prone \u200bto spread,\u201d Van De Weerdt explained.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military and COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.<\/p>\n

Respiratory infections currently make \u200bup 11% of all consultations, with the WHO expecting cold weather, flooding, overcrowded shelters and poor ventilation \u200cto push \u2060these numbers higher.<\/p>\n

Nine-month-old baby dies of cold in Gaza<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is shocking that just a few days of rain really showed us what the coming months will bring. And winter has not even fully set in. The worst really is yet to come,\u201d Van De Weerdt said.<\/p>\n

Nearly a million displaced people in Gaza \u200blive in flood-exposed areas, \u200band 400,000 of \u2060them are in locations that are considered at extremely high risk, according to the WHO.<\/p>\n

The agency said flooding heightened the risk of contaminated \u200bwater, while standing water gave mosquitoes and pests more places to breed. \u200bDampness encouraged \u2060mould and bacteria that are major drivers for respiratory infections, especially in young children, it said.<\/p>\n

While the majority of medicines are getting into Gaza, the WHO faces difficulty getting laboratory supplies, which \u2060it says \u200bare vital for diagnosing patients before they can be \u200btreated.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo prevent outbreaks, we really call to let laboratory equipment enter Gaza today, so that we can avoid a \u200bpublic health disaster on top of a disaster.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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GENEVA: The World Health Organization warned on Friday of surging respiratory illnesses in Gaza, with worse expected after heavy rains flooded tens of thousands of tents \u200bhousing displaced Palestinians. \u201cThe numbers already show the pressure. Acute respiratory infections are 33,000 \u200ccases higher than at the same time last year,\u201d Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101165,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":16,"label":"Pakistan"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-content\/uploads\/gaza-rain-1024x555.jpg",1024,555,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"frkhokhar@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/author\/frkhokhargmail-com"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":16,"name":"Pakistan","slug":"pakistan","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":16,"taxonomy":"category","description":"All about Pakistan","parent":0,"count":10533,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":16,"category_count":10533,"category_description":"All about Pakistan","cat_name":"Pakistan","category_nicename":"pakistan","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101164"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101166,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101164\/revisions\/101166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvog.com\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}