Everything changed in our lives when my 12-year-old daughter Saeda woke up with yellow eyes.
At first I thought Saeda, the oldest of my five children, was just suffering from simple fatigue due to malnutrition and the difficult life we have been living for many months, displaced as we are to a tent.
But after she began complaining of severe stomach pain, I called a doctor, Hossam Abu Qamar, to examine her.
The doctor, who lives with his family in the same refuge as we do, came quickly when I told him that her eyes were yellow.
“Saeda must be isolated immediately. She has hepatitis A,” Dr. Qamar said after a quick examination.
Hepatitis A is reportedly spreading rapidly among the displaced people in the Gaza Strip, due to overcrowding, poor hygiene and contaminated water, the only water we have access to. …more
