Baby paralysed in Gaza’s first type 2 polio case in 25 years, says WHO
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A Palestinian child being examined by a doctor, amid fears over the spread of polio, in the central Gaza Strip.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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DUBAI – A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Aug 23, with UN agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby.
The type 2 virus (cVDPV2), while not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.
UN agencies have called for Israel and Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause in their 10-month-old war to allow vaccination campaigns to proceed in the territory.
“Polio does not distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli children,” Mr Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said on Aug 23 in a post on social media platform X.
“Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children,” he added.
The baby, who has lost movement in his lower left leg, is currently in stable condition, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The WHO has announced that two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are set to begin in late August and September across the densely populated Gaza Strip.
With its health services widely damaged or destroyed by fighting and raw sewage spreading amid a breakdown in sanitation infrastructure, Gaza’s population is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease.
Vaccinations in a war zone
Gaza’s Health Ministry first reported the polio case
Hamas on Aug 16 supported a UN request for a seven-day pause in the fighting to vaccinate Gaza children against polio, Hamas political bureau official Izzat al-Rishq said on Aug 23.
Israel, which has laid siege to Gaza since October 2023 and whose ground offensive and bombardments have levelled much of the territory, said days later that it would facilitate the transfer of polio vaccines into Gaza for around a million children.
The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit (Cogat) said it was coordinating with Palestinians to procure 43,000 vials of vaccine – each with multiple doses – for delivery in Israel in the coming weeks for transfer to Gaza.
Stagnant wastewater in the central Gaza Strip. With a breakdown in sanitation infrastructure in Gaza, its population is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease.
PHOTO: AFP
The vaccines should be sufficient for two rounds of doses for more than a million children, Cogat added.
As well as allowing the entry of polio specialists into Gaza, the UN has said a successful campaign would require transport for vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step, as well as conditions that would allow the campaign to reach children in every area of the rubble-clogged territory.
Poliomyelitis, a highly infectious virus primarily spread through the faecal-oral route, can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis.
Traces of polio virus were detected in July in sewage in Deir Al-Balah and Khan Younis, two areas in central and southern Gaza respectively, that have seen hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting seek shelter.
Children under five are particularly at risk. REUTERS
