Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies have launched an extensive polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip. This crucial campaign is encountering formidable obstacles as a result of the ongoing conflict and the widespread displacement of people. Nevertheless, the objective is to provide vaccination coverage to the northern and southern regions in the coming days.
The United Nations, working together with Palestinian health authorities, commenced the vaccination of 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
It’s important to note that although most people with polio don’t display any symptoms and those who do usually recover within a week, there is currently no cure for the disease. Furthermore, when polio causes paralysis, it is typically permanent and can be fatal if it affects the muscles responsible for breathing.
At Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, an unspecified number of children, including Amal Shaheen’s three-year-old daughter, who was already undergoing treatment for pneumonia, received the first dose of the vaccination. This vaccine, which involves two doses, is administered orally. Amal Shaheen, who has been at the hospital for 17 days, expressed her constant worry for her daughter’s health. She shared her relief as her daughter and other children at the hospital received vaccination against polio, emphasizing the importance of protecting them from the disease.
Why Polio is back in Gaza?
Humanitarian organizations have reported that the resurgence of the virus is linked to the disruption of routine child vaccination programs due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. The conflict has also resulted in extensive damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.
Prior to the conflict, the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that immunization rates in Gaza and the occupied West Bank were at an optimal level. However, as of the latest data, the coverage of polio vaccine doses has decreased from an estimated 99% to less than 90% in 2022. This decline is concerning and highlights the impact of the conflict on public health in the region.
In an unfortunate turn of events, the first confirmed case of polio in Gaza in 25 years has surfaced. The patient is a one-year-old boy known as Abdul Rahman Abu Al-Jidyan, who resides with his family in a tent in Deir al Balah, a central area in Gaza. Born just before the onset of the war, Abdul Rahman was unable to receive routine vaccinations due to the constant displacement of his family.
Approximately two months ago, his family noticed that he had stopped crawling and was running a fever. Concerned for his health, they rushed him to the hospital, where a sample was sent to a laboratory in Jordan. Health officials’ worst fears were confirmed when test results indicated that Abdul Rahman had contracted polio.
In recent news, Gaza has reported its first polio case in 25 years. Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially confirmed that a baby has been partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus. This development has raised concerns as the presence of a paralysis case suggests that there might be many more individuals who are infected but not showing any symptoms.
The presence of the poliovirus has been detected in wastewater samples from Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, both areas having a significant number of displaced Palestinians who have been forced to flee Israeli airstrikes.
Vaccination Campaign
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate the smooth progress of the vaccination campaign.
The vaccination campaign will start in central Gaza on Sunday, with three consecutive daily pauses in fighting between 6am and 3pm local time. It will then move to southern Gaza, where there will be another three-day pause, followed by northern Gaza.
According to UN officials, children who get the vaccine will need a second dose in late September. Healthcare workers aim to achieve 95% vaccine coverage across the strip, the level needed to stop transmission of the virus within Gaza.
If this is not achieved there is an agreement for an additional humanitarian pause to allow a fourth day of vaccination.
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