Dr Riyad Qishta of Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, has told Al Jazeera that the disease has spread among children, adults and elderly for the first time.

He said it was the result of overcrowding, lack of hygiene, consumption of non-potable water, disruption in sewage networks and the spread of wastewater.

The hospital’s capacity to deal with the spread of the disease is limited in light of the inability of health authorities to meet the needs of the people displaced as a result of their overcrowding in Rafah, he added.

Dr Qishta also said that the epidemic is dangerous and its spread among chronic patients and children poses difficulties, especially that among its complications is an enlargement of the liver and may develop into cirrhosis in the liver and cause a coma in the brain.