While the deaths of famines in the Gaza Strip continue to increase, experts say that there is no easy way to get out of the crisis due to the medical complexity of the treatment of severe malnutrition.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 160 people – including at least 90 children – have died of malnutrition since the start of the war.
The world’s leading world body, the integrated classification of the food security phase (IPC), says that almost all Gaza suffers from a food security crisis or worse, and more than half of the population is in the “emergency disaster” or “disaster” phase – which means that recovery is not as simple as giving hunger for people.
On the contrary, giving food to people who experience such an extreme degree of famine could kill them, according to experts.
“If you do what the body wants to do, which is simply to drink and eat as much as possible at the minute when you see food, you can actually create these permanent imbalances that can cause things like heart failure or damage to organs, because the body must have adapted to access this famine mode,” said Dr. Kavita Patel, an internal medicine.
At the most serious stages of famine, even giving water to a person can push their body in check, said Patel.
What happens to the body when it is hungry?
Humans can usually do without food or water for several days because the body finds a way to adapt to survive. First of all by feeding on so -called glycogen stores – a starchy substance of carbohydrates which is stored in the liver and muscles. The body stores approximately 1,700 to 2,200 energy calories as a glycogen.
“This is the first thing your body will help you cross without eating or water for about several days, in some cases, perhaps a little longer,” said Patel.
Once these glycogen stores are exhausted, the body begins to break down fat for energy, but when it has disappeared, it turns into a muscle. This is what makes the body narrows and the hungry person to suppose a glove look and with hollow cheeks. The brain does not have the energy it needs to operate, leading to irritability, mood swings and difficulties in concentrating.
“It is very difficult to make solid judgments,” said Patel. “You can see that people have psychotic illusions. You can see people hearing things. All this is essentially the way the body survives. “
Most hungry people die from infections while their immune system stops. Finally, the heart will be affected, causing the drop in blood pressure and a person’s pulse. If they do not die from an infection, the heart will stop, the doctors said.
The most vulnerable parts of the population are likely to suffer the most. “Children – In particular infants – pregnant women, the elderly and people with certain types of chronic diseases are risk groups to which we have to pay particular attention,” said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatric teacher at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
How is famine treated?
Patel said that a good analogy to give food to a hungry person is a downpour after drought. The earth desperately needs water, but because it is so dry, it pushes the water instead of absorbing it, causing sudden floods. “REALIMENTATION” after famine must be managed clinically and by health professionals.
“When a person has reached a state of famine, the body undergoes extreme metabolic changes,” she said. “Giving too much food – or the wrong type – too quickly can trigger a dangerous gap in fluids and electrolytes called refeeding syndrome, which can be fatal if not carefully managed.”
“A bag of flour – Some of the only food aids that have been installed recently – will not save anyone because it has none of the essential nutrients,” said Dr. Nour Alamassi, doctor and medical team leader for Project Hope, an international non -governmental health and humanitarian organization.
“Too many carbohydrates can actually be fatal for anyone suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and even for the average person in Gaza who has not followed a regular diet for several months, it is very difficult to digest,” wrote Alamassi, who takes care of children and pregnant women in Gaza, in an email.
Ideally, doctors told NBC News, there would be enough medical personnel to monitor the refeeding process for each person for a period that extends from weeks to months. Children would be stabilized with enriched milks, which contain the nutrients that a child suffering from malnutricity needs, and something called ready -to -use therapeutic foods (RUTF), which are rich in energy, easy to digest and carefully balanced in the nutrients that children need to start recovering. Doctors prefer blood to monitor sodium and potassium levels – if these electrolytes are too low or too high, this can be fatal.
But the situation on the ground in Gaza is far from ideal. There are not enough doctors, not enough supplies and not good supplies, say the experts.
“Aid blocking has prevented us from accessing drugs and nutrition supplies that are necessary to treat these people,” said Alamassi. “We recently failed in high energy cookies (weekly) in our clinics, which really limits our ability to help patients. We hope to get more in the coming days, but every day without these supplies can make a major difference for the result of a patient. ”
What are the long -term effects of famine?
Even if the realization is successful, people who survive famine can feel physical and psychological effects for the rest of their lives, experts said. Damage, especially for young people and very old victims, are permanent.
In children, malnutrition can cause delays in physical and cognitive development. Physically, they are more likely to have weakened the immune systems, which has led to a trouble recovering infections. Malnutrition children are also more likely to experience stiff growth, which can affect their size, muscle mass and bone density and even delay puberty, experts said.
Cognizing, children can suffer from permanent brain damage due to iron and zinc deficiencies, affecting their ability to learn and solve problems.
Alamassi said that the Hunger Crisis in Gaza affects “an entire generation of children who will suffer life consequences”. The reinstatement of adults in very serious malnutrition is not only possible, but probably said to redlene.
“If this is well done, most adults, unless they are really at a terminal stage of undernutrition, the re-facility will lead to the restoration of everything-a story very different from the capacity of a young child suffering from prolonged malnutrition, where it is often impossible to obtain a complete recovery,” he said.
Patel said that even people with a history of malnutrition have been monitored over the years to ensure that their bodies are working properly.
“As they age and develop, different parts of the body draw memories of this nutritional depletion,” she said. “So, the question we all have to ask ourselves is: how long will we be able to do it without having adequate support on the field?”
