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

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 up and were covered in the deep red of dried blood.

Adam’s condition began with what appeared to be a pimple on his nose that seemed harmless at the time. But soon the blisters spread to his neck and chest. Then his sister, Handa, 3, also developed the rash. Ziadeh rushed to Nasser Hospital for help and was told her children would need to be put on an IV to fight an infection.

“We see 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.

“This is due to lack of hygiene, personal hygiene, lack of detergents, disinfectant materials, lack of soap, lack of good water, poor sanitation.”

Reports of a suspicious rash spreading in the Gaza Strip have taken over social media in recent days. Health professionals in the Strip say the spread is due to a lack of hygiene products and clean sanitation.

According to Al-Farra, the disease can lead to serious complications if not treated properly, including “kidney failure.”

“This skin infection is very dangerous.”

More than 65,000 cases of rash

As of June 30, there were more than 65,000 cases of skin rashes and more than 100,000 cases of scabies and lice in Gaza. according to to the World Health Organization.

Impetigo, the infection Al-Farra treated for Nasser, is common and mainly affects children and babies. It starts with a blister and spreads to the rest of the body after about a week and is highly contagious. The reddish sores, often found around the nose, mouth, arms and legs, eventually burst and develop a crust. It is usually treated with antibiotics.

But Nasser Hospital has been overwhelmed by patient demand after they under siege by Israeli forces in February. At the time, an Israeli spokesman said described that raid was “precise and limited” and said the Israeli forces had reliable information about Hamas members hiding in Nasser, which Hamas called “lies.” The raid displaced about 2,000 people and took them to Rafah and Deir al-Balah.

WATCH | Highly contagious skin disease spreads in Gaza:

These 2 children in Gaza are suffering from a highly contagious rash

Rawan Abu Odeh and Ola Ziadeh say their children developed the rashes due to the unsanitary conditions they live in.

Since then, medical staff have struggled to cope with the high number of patients coming in and a lack of supplies to treat them. Nasser has more than 500 patients under his care, according to to Doctors Without Borders, and is one of the largest hospitals in Gaza. It is the last main hospital in southern Gaza and provides intensive care to patients suffering from severe burns and trauma, as well as newborns and pregnant women.

“The hospitals are overcrowded, the patients are lying on the floor, so it is very difficult… a bad situation,” Al-Farra said.

Canadian aid workers in Nasser say the hospital is a breaking point because it has difficulty meeting the original demand.

The situation has deteriorated since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, after a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed more than 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostages in Gaza, according to Israeli counts. The Israeli response to the ground and air assault has killed more than 39,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

‘Everything is contaminated’

Sitting on the hospital bed next door, Rawan Abu Odeh, 30, brushed four-year-old Sahar’s hair and tied it in pigtails with pink elastics, creating a half-up, half-down hairstyle. The little girl’s face was covered in scabs from the skin infection that had struck her. Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked around the hospital room, her eyes filled with deep sadness.

“They gave me cream and antibiotics … but it spread, as you can see,” Odeh said. “It started growing behind her ears, on her neck and chest.”

Odeh has been displaced several times during the war, between Rafah and Khan Younis, in a house and in tents and sometimes on the streets. In the midst of all the displacement, cleanliness and personal hygiene are 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 is no cleanliness, there is 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 crossing and ending the war.

“We must allow the import of hospital materials and medical supplies,” he said.

“We need many things in the hospital that are not available in Gaza.”