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The Grave Long-Term Effects of the Gaza Malnutrition Crisis
The WHO believes one in five children in Gaza are acutely malnourished, with the health effects potentially lasting for generations.
Marko Kerac, associate professor of global child health and nutrition at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, describes the body as going into a progressive winding down process where for a period, people are malnourished but still medically stable, before entering a far more serious phase characterized by loss of appetite, lethargy, and either apathy or anxiety. A consequence of protein deficiency is that the body lacks the amino acids it needs for the continuous regeneration of the gut wall, Fitzpatrick explains, meaning that the intestines become more permeable, and making it more likely for bacteria to leach out into the bloodstream and drive blood poisoning known as sepsis. According to Nina Sivertsen, an associate professor in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University, while the most natural reaction to treating people whose bodies have been in a state of starvation for months may seem to be to give them an excess of calories, this can actually induce a deadly condition known as “refeeding syndrome,” which was notoriously seen in Holocaust concentration camp survivors.
Or read this on Wired
