Gaza records first polio case in 25 years as UN urges vaccinations
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A young Palestinian boy standing barefoot near stagnant wastewater in Deir el-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on July 19.
PHOTO: AFP
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NEW YORK – Gaza has recorded its first polio case in 25 years, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Aug 16, after UN chief Antonio Guterres called for pauses in the Israel-Hamas war to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children.
Tests in Jordan confirmed the disease in a 10-month-old, who is unvaccinated, from the central Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in Ramallah said.
According to the United Nations, Gaza, now in its 10th month of war, has not registered a polio case for 25 years, although type 2 poliovirus was detected in samples collected from the territory’s wastewater
“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 emerged shortly after Mr Guterres called for two seven-day breaks in the Gaza war to vaccinate more than 640,000 children.
Poliovirus, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, is highly infectious. It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal. It mainly affects children under the age of five.
The UN health and children’s agencies said they had made detailed plans to reach children across the besieged Palestinian territory and vaccination drives could start in August.
But that would require pauses in the 10-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, they added.
Mr Guterres told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York: “Preventing and containing the spread of polio will take a massive, coordinated and urgent effort.
“I am appealing to all parties to provide concrete assurances right away guaranteeing humanitarian pauses for the campaign.”
In a statement, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UN children’s fund Unicef said: “These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities, and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination.”
Regional public health issue
After 25 years, polio’s re-emergence in the Gaza Strip would threaten neighbouring countries, WHO added.
“A ceasefire is the only way to ensure public health security in the Gaza Strip and the region.”
During each round of the campaign, the Health Ministry in Gaza, together with UN agencies, would provide “two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to more than 640,000 children under 10 years of age”.
More than 1.6 million doses of nOPV2 were expected to transit through Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport “by the end of August”, the statement added.
The war was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented Oct 7 attack on Israel,
On Aug 15, the toll from Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza passed 40,000,
