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NEED IS URGENT OF TESTING FOR COVID IN GAZA

As from ministry of health, al mezzan, palestinian center for humar rights, all journalists networks in Palestine…(you can find the ref in their websites) the corona virus testing is stopped in Gaza because, even if WHO has provided to order testing kits, they were not allowed to enter, up to yeasterday nigth.
Further problems for testing is the lack of chemical supplies required, and that also must be imported for the lab to function, and the insufficient performance of the machinery.

This last, is an other case of the policy of “strategic insecurity and diminution of health and assistance”, and is not a negligence, but undoubtedly purposeful, as all the mechanism of blockade involving even medical supplies is willifull.

Even in the case that also this time, on the brink of the collapse, the facilities for testing will arrive and the criticality in the machinery fixed and the chemical and biological supplies required for the test filled up for a while… even in that case, can you imagine your life always tied to a string in the hands of an unfriendly party, that at the best wants you to be invisible?

I guess that is giving visibility is possibly the main task we can achieve in the immediacy as friends of Gaza to reduce this other critical situation.
Bad publicity for Israel is still (I wander for how long, seen the tiptop walk of self defined “western democracies” ) a restrain from worst, sometimes.

 

Italian Translation
Come comunicato dal ministero della salute, al mezzan, centro palestinese per i diritti umani, tutte le reti di giornalisti in Palestina… (trovate le ref nei loro siti web) testare per coronavirus si è fermato a Gaza perché, anche se l’OMS ha provveduto all’ordine kit, fino a ieri notte sono stati autorizzati a entrare. Ulteriori problemi per i test sono la mancanza di forniture chimiche necessarie, che devono anche essere importate affinché il laboratorio funzioni e le prestazioni insufficienti dei macchinari.
Quest’ultimo, è un altro caso della politica di “insicurezza strategica e diminuzione della salute e dell’assistenza”, e non è una negligenza, ma è indubbiamente intenzionale, poiché tutto il meccanismo di blocco che coinvolge anche le forniture mediche è malevolo.
Anche nel caso in cui anche questa volta, sull’orlo del collasso, arrivino i kit per i test e le criticità nei macchinari fossero risolte e le scorte di sostanze per il laboratorio necessarie per i test riempiranno per un po ‘ lo scaffale… anche in questo caso, riuscite ad immaginare la vita sempre legata a un filo nelle mani di una parte ostile, che, al massimo di ottimismo, ti vuole rendere invisibile?

Immagino che dare visibilità sia forse il compito principale che possiamo assumere nell’immediatezza come amici di Gaza per ridurre quest’altra situazione critica. La cattiva pubblicità per Israele è ancora (chissà per quanto tempo ancora, visto il cammino in punta di piedi di auto definite “democrazie occidentali”) un freno al peggio, almeno a volte.

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It Takes Time to Unravel the Ecology of War in Gaza, Palestine: Long-Term Changes in Maternal, Newborn and Toddlers’ Heavy Metal Loads, and Infant and Toddler Developmental Milestones in the Aftermath of the 2014 Military Attacks

Toxicant, teratogen and carcinogen metal war remnants negatively affect human health. The current study analyzes, first, the persistence of heavy metal contamination in newborn hair in four cohorts across time in Gaza Palestine; second, the change in mothers’ and infants’ heavy metal contamination from birth to toddlerhood; and third, the impact of heavy metal contamination on infants’ and toddlers’ growth and development. The hair of newborns was analyzed for twelve heavy metals by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP/MS) in cohorts recruited at delivery in 2011, 2015, 2016, and 2018–2019. In the 2015 cohort, mothers’ hair samples were taken at delivery, and toddlers and mothers hair were also analyzed 18 months later. Growth levels of infants at six months and toddlers at 18 months were assessed according to World Health Organization (WHO) standards according to a mother report and pediatric check-up, respectively. 1. The level of metal contamination in utero was persistently high across 8 years, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2019, following three major military attacks (2009, 2012, 2014). 2. The 2015 cohort babies exposed in utero to attacks in 2014 at six months showed association of high load at birth in mother of arsenic and in newborn of barium with underweight, of barium and molybdenum in newborn with stunting. 3. Eighteen months after birth, toddlers had a higher level of metals in hairs than when they were born, while, in their mothers, such levels were similar to those at delivery, confirming persistence in the environment of war remnants. Underweight and stunting, both in infants and toddlers, were higher than reported for previous years, as well as being progressive within the cohort. Severe environmental factors, metal contamination and food insecurity put Gaza’s infant health at risk.

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THE VIRUS, THE SETTLER, AND THE SIEGE GAZA IN THE AGE OF CORONA

THE GAZA STRIP is a space apart. For over a decade and a half, it has been hemmed in and besieged by Israel, abetted by Egypt in its cruel endeavor. The siege has reduced the territory’s inhabitants to the barest level of existence, even as Israel, one of the greatest military powers on earth, regularly surveilles and uses the slightest sign of resistance as a pretext to bombard the 2-million strong population. The people of Gaza live in deplorable conditions, deprived of potable water, fuel, electric power, construction materials, and a vast range of ordinary goods, while waiting for another Israeli escalation. Immobilized in an area of 360 square miles, they are robbed of the ability to travel and of most other elements of human freedom.

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