War in Gaza fuelling drug-resistant infections among Israeli troops
Wounded Israeli soldiers are battling drug-resistant infections in the Gaza Strip, health officials have warned.
The Association for Infectious Diseases (AID) in Israel said that several drug-resistant pathogens have been found, mainly in limb injuries, including highly resistant bacterial strains of Klebsiella and Escherichia coli, and Aspergillus fungi.
“In all hospitals it is reported that soldiers have returned from the battlefield with resistant infections,” said Prof Galia Rahav, Chairman of the AID.
“It should be noted that a large part of the infections diagnosed among the wounded soldiers are also discovered from time to time in Israel, but they are found in people who were exposed to these bacteria, and not before.”
He added: “The contact with the soil and mud there causes exposure to such resistant bacteria, and also to mould.”
Since early November, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned about the surging risk of disease outbreaks in Gaza, as healthcare services, water and sanitation systems have disintegrated.
“Given the living conditions and lack of health care, more people could die from disease than bombings,” WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote last month in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier this month, there were reports of a dysentery outbreak amongst Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip, with the increase in diarrhoeal and intestinal disease requiring 18 evacuations for medical treatment.
The outbreak was believed to be caused by the infectious pathogen Shigella, while inadequate sanitation and poor food storage, donated by Israelis since the beginning of the fighting in the Gaza Strip, was suggested as the source of infection.
This isn’t the first time that resistant bacteria have been formed in conflict zones, with crumbling healthcare infrastructures and the unchecked use of antibiotics propelling the resistant bacteria beyond the immediate battle grounds.
A previous example is the lethal Iraqibacter superbug, Acinetobacter Baumannii, that was carried back to US hospitals by wounded soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraqibacter, renowned as one of the six deadliest drug resistant pathogens, infects wounds and spreads through bloodstreams. It can cause sepsis, loss of limbs and can even be fatal.
There are similar reports among Palestinians, with overcrowding, dire living conditions and no access to clean water or basic sanitation serving as a breeding ground for infectious disease.
Almost 1.9 million people in Gaza, nearly 85 per cent of the entire population, are estimated to be internally displaced, according to the United National Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
After more than two months of bombardment, hospitals in Gaza are still coming under intense attack, with only 11 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remaining partially functional.
At least 300 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since the October 7 massacre, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed, according to the United Nations.
This is more than the total number of healthcare workers killed across all countries in conflict in any year since 2016, according to Medical Aid for Palestinians.
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