Gaza Blog: Swine flu virus and “Anise” in Gaza Strip

People in the Gaza Strip are terrified of the swine flu virus (H1N1) because of two main reasons. Firstly, the Gaza Strip is under siege and is missing lots of the necessary medicines; specially the (H1N1) vaccine, and secondly, the Gaza Strip is a high populated area which means disease spreads quickly.

Due to the long period of the siege and the lack of food supplies, people have become les immune; specially the kids and that’s why people fear of the spread of the disease in an epidemic way that will cause death to huge amount of people, which is a deadly disaster. So far  the number of the people who have been affected in the  Gaza Strip is almost 30 and 10 of them have died. A rumor has started in Gaza Strip that the best way to prevent the spread of the disease is to drink hot “Anise”, so it has become the favorite drink of the people in Gaza Strip.

The SOS Children’s Village is running a campaign to alert the people about the swine flu virus (H1N1) by publishing brochures and advertisements to describe the disease and show how it spreads as well as the symptoms and how to prevent it from spreading further. Doctors and the SOS Children’s Village staff are supervising this campaign, also the youth girls who live in the SOS Children’s Village participated. In addition to this medical checkups are done that includes all the children in the Village and kids from the outside neighborhood.