A highly contagious skin disease is spreading across parts of the Gaza Strip - Action News
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A highly contagious skin disease is spreading across parts of the Gaza Strip

Reports on social media and in the news show a highly contagious skin rash mainly affecting children in the Gaza Strip. The red welts are on arms, legs, faces and chests, and are very itchy blisters that eventually burst and turn into a dark yellow crust.

The skin rash is associated with unhygienic conditions and can spread easily

A woman in a black dress holds a toddler on her laps with his arms up and a skin rash
Adam Ziadeh, 2, cried when his mother, Ola, lifted his arm to show the itchy scabs on his arm and stomach. She says it started with a pimple and eventually spread across his body. She was told he could only be treated by IV drip at Nasser Hospital. Skin diseases have been spreading across the Gaza Strip due to unhygienic circumstances. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

Ola Ziadeh, 28, held up her two-year-old son Adam Ziadeh's shirt to reveal red bumps and scabs all over his stomach and chest. The little boy screamed in pain at the sudden movement. The welts on his skin swelled large, covered with the deep red of dried blood.

Adam's condition started with what looked like a pimple on his nose that seemed innocuous at the time. But soon after, the blisters spread to his neck and chest. Then his sister, Handa, 3, also got the rash. Ziadeh rushed to Nasser Hospital for help and was told her childrenhad to have an IV drip to fight an infection.

"We're seeing a high prevalence of skin lesions and skin infections. This is bullous impetigo," Dr. Ahmed Al-Farra, director of pediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife.

A little boy in a blue shirt lifts his arm and shows a skin rash
Adam has been receiving treatment at Nasser Hospital for bullous impetigo. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

"This is due to lack of hygiene, personal hygiene, lack of materials for washing, material for disinfectant, a lack of soap, lack of good water, bad sanitation."

Reports of a suspicious skin rash going around in the Gaza Strip have taken over social media in recent days. Health professionals in the strip say the spread is because of the lack of hygiene products and clean sanitation.

Al-Farra saidit can lead to serious complications if not treated properly, including "renal failure."

"This skin infection is very dangerous."

Over 65,000 cases of skin rashes

As of June 30, there were over 65,000 cases of skin rashes in Gaza, and more than100,000 cases of scabies and lice, according to the World Health Organization.

Impetigo, the infection that Al-Farra is treating at Nasser, is common and mainly affects children and infants. It starts with a blister and, after about a week, spreads to the rest of the bodyand is highly contagious. The reddish sores, often found around the nose, mouth, arms and legs, eventually burst and develop a crust. It's typically treated with antibiotics.

But Nasser Hospital has been overwhelmed by patient demand after being sieged in February by Israeli troops. At the time, an Israeli spokesperson described that raid as "precise and limited," and said the Israel Defence Forceshad credible information of Hamas members hiding in Nasser, which Hamas called "lies." The raid displaced some 2,000 people to Rafah and Deir al-Balah.

WATCH |A highly contagious skin disease is spreading in Gaza:

These 2 kids in Gaza suffer from a highly contagious skin rash

1 month ago
Duration 2:04
Rawan Abu Odeh and Ola Ziadeh say their kids caught the skin rash because of the unsanitary conditions they're sheltering in.

Since then, medical staff have struggled with the high level of patients coming inand a lack of supplies to deal with them. Nasser has over 500 patients in its care, according to Doctors Without Borders, and is one of the largest hospitals in Gaza. It is the last main hospital in southern Gaza and provides critical care for patients suffering from severe burns andtrauma, as well as for newborns and pregnant women.

"The hospitals are crowded, the patients are lying on the grounds, so it's very difficult ... a bad situation," Al-Farra said.

Canadian aid workers at Nasser say the hospital is reaching abreaking pointas it struggles to meet its original demand.

The situation has been deteriorating since the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed over 1,200 people and took over 200 hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's responding ground and air incursionhas killed more than 39,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

'Everything is contaminated'

Sitting nearby on the next bed over at the hospital, Rawan Abu Odeh, 30, brushed and tied four-year-old Sahar's hair into pigtails with pink elastics, for a half-up, half-down hairdo. The little girl's face was filled with scabs from the skin infection that afflicted her. Her eyebrows curled upwards as she looked around the hospital room, her eyes showing a deep sadness.

A little girl in a purple shirt gets an iv drip in her arm and has pimples on her face
The mother of four-year-old Sahar says she hasn't been able to properly bathe her daughter, and the lack of cleanliness has led to the rashes the girl suffers from today. (Mohamed El Saife/CBC)

"They gave me cream and antibiotics ... but it spread, as you can see," Odehsaid. "It started growing behind her ears, on her neck and chest."

Odeh has been displaced multiple times throughout the war, between Rafah and Khan Younis, in a home and in tents and sometimes living in the street. In the midst of all the movement, cleanliness and personal hygiene have been difficult to maintain.

"I find bugs in her hair, and every day I want to clean her, but it's for nothing," she said. "There's no cleanliness, there's no care, no soap, no shampoo.... Everything is contaminated."

In his office at the hospital, Dr. Al-Farrah stressed the importance of opening the Rafah border crossing and ending the war.

"We need to permit the entry of materials for the hospitals and medical supplies," he said.

"We need a lot of things in the hospital that are not available in Gaza."

With files from Mohamed El Saife