2 months ago
16
Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies launched a large-scale vaccination campaign against polio in the
Gaza Strip
on Sunday.
This effort aims to prevent an outbreak in a territory devastated by the Israel-Hamas war. Authorities plan to vaccinate children in central Gaza until Wednesday before extending the campaign to the heavily affected northern and southern areas, reported AP.
Starting with a small number of vaccinations on Saturday, the campaign has set a goal to reach approximately 640,000 children. The World Health Organisation announced on Thursday that Israel has agreed to limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate this health initiative.
Initial reports indicated Israeli strikes in central Gaza early Sunday, but no immediate information was available regarding casualties. Hospitals in Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat confirmed the commencement of the vaccination drive early on Sunday. Israel stated that the vaccination program would continue until September 9, operating for eight hours each day.
Gaza recently reported its first polio case in 25 years, a 10-month-old boy who is now paralysed in the leg. The World Health Organisation warns that the presence of a paralysis case indicates there could be hundreds more infected individuals who aren't showing symptoms. While most people with polio do not experience symptoms and those who do usually recover within a week, there is no cure, and when polio causes paralysis, it is usually permanent and can be fatal if it affects breathing muscles.
The vaccination campaign faces numerous challenges, including ongoing conflict, destroyed roads, and hospitals shut down by the war. Approximately 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced within the territory, with hundreds of thousands living in squalid tent camps. Health officials have expressed concern about potential disease outbreaks as uncollected garbage accumulates and the bombing of critical infrastructure has led to putrid water flowing through the streets. Widespread hunger has also made people more susceptible to illness.
"We escaped death with our children and fled from place to place for the sake of our children, and now we have these diseases," said Wafaa Obaid, who brought her three children to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah to receive vaccinations.
Ammar Ammar, a spokesperson for the UN children's agency, emphasized the need for a temporary truce in designated areas to enable families to access health facilities. "This is a first step," he told The Associated Press. "But there is no alternative to a cease-fire because it's not only polio that threatens children in Gaza, but also other factors, including malnutrition and the inhuman conditions they are living in."
Meanwhile, Juliette Touma, communications director of UNRWA said, "This is the first few hours of the first phase of a massive campaign, one of the most complex in the world.
"Today is test time for parties to the conflict to respect these area pauses to allow the UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach children with these very precious two drops. It’s a race against time," Touma told Reuters. "Children continue to be exposed, it knows no borders, checkpoints or lines of fighting. Every child must be vaccinated in Gaza and Israel to curb the risks of this vicious disease spreading," she further added.
The vaccinations will be distributed at around 160 locations across the territory, including medical centers and schools. Children under 10 will receive two drops of oral polio vaccine in two rounds, with the second dose administered four weeks after the first. Israel allowed approximately 1.3 million doses to be delivered to the territory last month, which are now stored in refrigerated conditions in a warehouse in Deir al-Balah. An additional shipment of 400,000 doses is expected to arrive soon.
The polio virus that triggered this latest outbreak is a mutated virus from an oral polio vaccine. In very rare cases, the weakened live virus contained in the oral polio vaccine can be shed by those who are vaccinated and evolve into a new form capable of starting new epidemics.
