The polio vaccination campaign has begun. It is a race against time and against the devastation of war. Israel only grants three days of partial pause in its military operations.
The vaccination campaign against polio on the Strip began on Saturday, August 31, a day earlier than planned. The objective is vaccinate all children up to 10 years old and prevent the spread of the virus in Gaza, diagnosed a few days ago in a child. It is about the first confirmed case in the Palestinian territory in the last 25 years.
The vaccination campaign itself will begin on September 1 by the Palestinian Ministry of Health (Moh), mainly in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) .
Israel grants only three days of partial rest from conflict
The goal is not easy to achieve. More than 640,000 children must be vaccinated and the doses that must be supplied and inoculated are around 1.60 million (two for each child). All this in an absolutely disastrous context that will make operations very complex.
Israel also does not seem interested in stopping the fighting. The WHO has made it known that it has managed to reach an agreement with Tel Aviv which only provides for a limited pause in military actions. The Israeli government has accepted stop fighting between 6:00 and 15:00 for three dayswith the possibility of extending them for another day.
For the vaccination campaign to be effective, the WHO has stated that At least 90% of children should be vaccinated. More than 2,100 health workers from UN agencies and the Gaza Ministry of Health will participate in the mission. He director general of the WHOTeodros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the campaign will begin in the central area of Gaza and then continue in the south of the Strip and finally in the north.
According to Unicef, this provision is not sufficient to guarantee vaccination coverage. Due to insecurity, damage to roads and infrastructure, and constant population displacement, carrying out the campaign for just three days in each area is unlikely to be enough to achieve adequate vaccination coverage,” the agency said. the UN in a press release.
