WHO: Gaza’s Health Care System Collapsing

2024-01-31 16:23:50来源：网络

　　世卫组织：加沙的医疗保健系统正在崩溃

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　　By Dan Novak

　　24 January 2024

　　A World Health Organization (WHO) official who recently returned from the Gaza Strip said recently that the health care system is collapsing. He said more workers and supplies are needed.

　　WHO Health Emergency Officer Sean Casey told reporters at the United Nations: "I've seen the health care system collapsing before my eyes."

　　Casey spent five weeks in Gaza, starting in early December. While there, he met with medical professionals and patients across the territory.

　　"I saw patients in hospitals every day with severe burns, with open fractures, waiting hours or days for care, and they would often ask me for food and water," he said.

　　Casey said a cease-fire is needed. But he also said the ability to move people and aid supplies safely and quickly within Gaza would help ease suffering.

　　Reports say Gaza had a strong health care system with 36 hospitals and 25,000 doctors, nurses and specialists before Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7. Now, the WHO says, about 15 hospitals are partially operating. That makes getting care difficult for the more than 50,000 injured people.

　　Casey said there is a shortage of supplies but also of workers. Many of them are displaced and struggling to survive and care for their own families.

　　"There are unbelievably brave health workers across Gaza who are staying and taking care of people because there is no one else to do it," he said.

　　Casey was in Gaza to see how to bring in more international medical teams.

　　He said getting supplies to northern Gaza is especially difficult. During the five weeks that he was there, his team was unable to provide supplies to the largest hospital in the north, al-Shifa, for 12 straight days.

　　At Al-Ahli hospital, also in the north, Casey said the situation was very bad.

　　"I saw patients who were lying on church pews, basically waiting to die in a hospital that had no fuel, no power, no water, very little in the way of medical supplies," he said.

　　Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid supplies. Casey said he had not seen evidence of that during his hospital visits.

　　"I have no evidence of supplies that have been delivered to hospitals going anywhere except to those hospitals," he said.

　　Dr. Seema Jilani is an emergency health expert with the International Rescue Committee. She returned recently from a two-week visit to Gaza with five British doctors.

　　Jilani is a children's doctor who has worked in conflict areas including Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. She said, "In my experience of working in conflict zones around the world, this is the most extreme situation I have seen in terms of scale, severity of injuries, number of children that have suffered that have nothing to do with any of this."

　　Jilani worked in the emergency room at Al-Aksa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, the only hospital in the middle area of Gaza. Jilani said she treated children who had lost arms and legs and who had extreme burns.

　　After she left, Jilani said, the hospital ran out of fuel and the lights went out. She does not know what has happened to the babies she treated or whether they have been moved to a safer place.

　　I'm Dan Novak.

　　Margaret Besheer wrote this story for Voice of America. Dan Novak adapted this story for VOA Learning English using additional reporting from The Associated Press.

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　　作者：Dan Novak

　　2024年1月24日

　　一位刚从加沙地带返回的世界卫生组织（WHO）官员最近表示，该地的医疗保健系统正在崩溃。他说，需要更多的工作人员和供应品。

　　世卫组织卫生紧急事务官员Sean Casey在联合国对记者说：“我亲眼看到医疗保健系统在崩溃。”

　　Casey从12月初开始在加沙待了五周。在那里，他在整个领土上与医疗专业人员和病人会面。

　　他说：“我每天在医院里看到病人，他们有严重的烧伤，有开放性骨折，等待几个小时甚至几天的护理，他们经常向我要食物和水。”

　　Casey说，需要停火。但他也说，如果能在加沙内部安全快速地转移人员和援助物资，将有助于缓解苦难。

　　报道称，哈马斯激进分子在10月7日攻击以色列之前，加沙拥有强大的医疗保健系统，有36家医院和25000名医生、护士和专家。现在，世卫组织说，大约有15家医院在部分运营。这使得超过50000名受伤的人难以得到护理。

　　Casey说，不仅物资短缺，工作人员也短缺。他们中的许多人被迫离开原来的地方，挣扎着生存，照顾自己的家人。

　　他说：“在加沙各地，有一些令人难以置信的勇敢的卫生工作者，他们留下来照顾人们，因为没有别人来做这件事。”

　　Casey去加沙是为了看看如何引入更多的国际医疗团队。