Cases of this disease are being detected after the reduction in vaccines since the war between Israel and Hamas began.
Aid groups and international organizations call for a humanitarian pause in Gaza fighting to allow a mass vaccination campaign against polio. In Gaza it has been confirmed one case of polio and others are suspectedand in July the virus was detected in wastewater taken in six samples.
“I call on all parties to immediately offer concrete guarantees of a humanitarian pause for the campaign“said last week the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
“Let’s be clear: the definitive polio vaccine is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. But in any case, a break is essential,” he added. World Health Organization (OMS) y UNICEF they signed on Friday in a joint statement.
In said statement they affirm that they hope to launch two rounds of a vaccination campaign against polio in late August and September. International agencies said it was a humanitarian pause is necessary seven days to carry out the campaign.
“We are anticipating and preparing for the worst case scenario, a polio outbreak in the coming weeks or months“Francis Hughes, CARE International’s Gaza response director, told The Associated Press.
Polio vaccine coverage declines in Gaza
Poliomyelitis was eradicated in Gaza 25 years agobut vaccine coverage has declined since the war started 10 months ago. According to the WHO, two-dose polio vaccine coverage fell from 99% in 2022 to less than 90% in early 2024.
Hundreds of thousands of Displaced Palestinians crammed into tent camps that lack drinking water or adequate wastewater and garbage disposal.
It affects children and can be fatal
Polio is very contagious and It is transmitted mainly through contact with contaminated feces, water or food. It can cause difficulty breathing and irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. It mainly affects young children and is sometimes fatal.
To avoid a widespread outbreak, it is planned to send more than 1.6 million doses of oral polio vaccineand aid groups are preparing to vaccinate more than 600,000 children in the coming weeks.
The aid group Mercy Corps estimates that about 50,000 babies born since the start of the war They have not been immunized against polio. “This is very worrying,” Ammar Ammar, a spokesman for UNICEF.
“It is impossible to carry out vaccination in an active war zone and the alternative would be inconceivable for the children of Gaza and the entire region“. Aid workers anticipate that the number of cases increases and they fear that the disease will be difficult to contain without urgent intervention.
According to the UN, it only works a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 40% of its primary care centers. But the WHO and UNICEF affirm that their vaccination campaign will take place in all Gaza municipalitieswith the help of 2,700 workers.
