Amr Mostafa
The National / August 8, 2024
UN health body calls for ceasefire to allow immunization drive for 600,000 children in war-torn enclave.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing to launch a polio vaccination campaign in war-torn Gaza after the virus was detected in the Palestinian territory’s wastewater.
“WHO is sending more than one million polio vaccines which will be administered in the coming weeks,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization’s director general, said on Wednesday.
“The detection of polio in wastewater in Gaza is a telltale sign that the virus has been circulating in the community, putting unvaccinated children at risk.”
Dr Tedros said the WHO and the UN agencies for children and Palestinian refugees, UNICEF and UNRWA, were preparing two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns for 600,000 children under the age of eight in co-ordination with local health authorities.
“We need absolute freedom of movement for health workers and medical equipment to carry out these complex operations safely and effectively,” he said.
“A ceasefire, or at least days of tranquility during preparation and delivery of the vaccination campaigns, are required to protect children in Gaza from polio.”
No clinical cases have been detected so far.
Andrea King, from the WHO’s global health cluster team, said the vaccination campaign would be a “huge logistical challenge”.
“It’s vaccines as well as the associated cold chain supplies that are needed to enter Gaza … as well as the micro-planning within Gaza,” she told a press conference.
“The hope is that if everything lines up, these will arrive in time for the planned vaccination dates later this month, the first round to start on August 17.”
On July 30, the Gaza Health Ministry declared the Palestinian territory to be a “polio epidemic zone”, blaming the reappearance of the virus on Israel’s military offensive and the resulting destruction of health facilities.
The ministry said the virus was detected in wastewater samples taken in the Khan Younis region in the south of the strip, as well as in areas of central Gaza.
Inoculation campaigns came to halt after Israel launched a military offensive in response to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which has destroyed sewage infrastructure and disrupted waste-collection services in the enclave.
Thousands of tons of rubbish have accumulated since then, creating conditions suitable for the spread of disease.
Compounding the crisis has been the displacement of the majority of Gaza’s population, which has deprived them of clean water and sanitation services, the ministry said as it declared the epidemic.
Most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, poliovirus is highly infectious. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal. It mainly affects children under the age of five.
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Gaza records first polio case in 25 years as UN chief urges pause to vaccinate thousands
Amr Mostafa
The National / August 17, 2024
Tests in Jordan confirmed disease in an unvaccinated 10-month-old in the enclave.
Gaza has recorded its first polio case in 25 years, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday, after UN Secretary General António Guterres called for a pause in the war to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children.
Tests conducted in Jordan confirmed the disease in an unvaccinated 10-month-old from central Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah said.
“Several specialized committees were formed to carry out a campaign with different tasks to limit the spread of the polio epidemic, with the participation of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNRWA, and a number of experts,” it said.
It said the ministry put the plan in place as a result of “the difficult health conditions that the Gaza Strip is going through, the spread of infectious diseases, the flow of sewage in the streets and between the tents of the displaced, the lack of personal hygiene supplies and potable water”.
The potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly affects children under the age of five and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been eradicated.
According to the UN, Gaza has not registered a polio case for 25 years, although type 2 poliovirus was detected in samples collected from the territory’s wastewater in June.
“Doctors suspected the presence of symptoms consistent with polio,” the Health Ministry said. “After conducting the necessary tests in the Jordanian capital, Amman, the infection was confirmed.”
The case was announced shortly after Guterres called for two seven-day breaks in the Gaza war to vaccinate more than 640,000 children.
“Let’s be clear: the ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” Guterres said on Friday.
“But in any case, a polio pause is a must. It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over.”
He appealed for “concrete assurances” to be provided quickly, warning that preventing and containing the spread of polio in the enclave would take an urgent and co-ordinated effort.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) did not confirm the polio case, it said on Friday that three children in Gaza were found with acute flaccid paralysis – the onset of weakness or paralysis with reduced muscle tone, a common symptom of polio.
The children’s stool samples have been sent for testing to the Jordan National Polio Laboratory, the agency said.
More than 1.6 million doses of the polio vaccine are expected to arrive in Gaza by the end of August, the WHO said, in time for the vaccination campaigns which would have to be conducted in two rounds. Children under 10 will be given two drops of the oral vaccine against type 2 poliovirus.
Health officials in Gaza warned they would not be able to stop the spread of polio and treat people without an urgent ceasefire in place.
The warning came as international mediators expressed hope that a ceasefire deal was within reach after two days of talks, mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar on Friday. The mediators said that they plan to reconvene in Cairo next week to seal an agreement to stop the fighting which has killed more than 40.000 in the enclave.
Delegates have spent months trying to reach a three-phase plan in which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians detained by Israel.
Amr Mostafa – Breaking News reporter
