JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday (24/5) announced that the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Gaza health system requires an investment of 10 billion US dollars (about Rp. 172 trillion) over five years.
In a press conference in Geneva broadcast from Jerusalem, the WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, Reinhilde Van de Weerdt, said that the damage in the health sector alone was estimated at 1.4 billion US dollars (about Rp. 24 trillion).
More than 1,800 health facilities were partially or completely destroyed, ranging from large hospitals to smaller primary health care centers, clinics, pharmacies, and laboratories.
"Destroyed buildings and piles of garbage are ideal breeding grounds for rats and pests. As many as 80 percent of the 1,600 evacuation sites often see the emergence of rats and pests; more than 80 percent of these evacuation sites report skin infections, such as rabies, lice, and bedbugs," he said as quoted by Antara.
He noted that despite these challenges, efforts to improve the health system in Gaza continue. WHO has added 128 beds at Al-Shifa Hospital.
However, he stressed the need to protect health workers and ensure unhindered access for medical supplies to the Gaza Strip.
"However, for life-saving to have an impact, health and health workers must be protected and medicines and essential supplies must enter Gaza, including the removal of bureaucratic processes and restrictions on access to medically and globally recognized essential supplies."
Answering questions about medical evacuations, Van de Weerdt said this was a complicated process from a security and logistical point of view, but most importantly from a patient's rights point of view: patients and their families have the right to be treated in their homes, and that means medical supplies must enter Gaza.
"Patients can leave Gaza to go to hospitals in East Jerusalem or in the West Bank: to do so, they will go through the Rafah border, towards Egypt and from there to other countries, and recently also back to Jordan. The last medical evacuation was carried out on April 23, through Rafah, for 47 patients and 86 companions."
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