LONDON: The president of the UAE has pledged vaccines and funding for a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza Strip due to a recent outbreak, the Emirates News Agency reported on Friday. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan has allocated $5 million to support this effort.
The two-round vaccination drive, starting Sunday, will be carried out in partnership with the World Health Organization, the UN Children’s Fund, and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The campaign aims to immunize over 640,000 Palestinian children under 10 years old with two doses of the polio vaccine to halt the virus’s spread and prevent a larger regional outbreak.
The campaign will begin in central Gaza and then move to the south and north, operating in phases during humanitarian pauses announced this week to allow access to health facilities and community workers. In preparation, 1.26 million doses of the vaccine have already been delivered to Gaza, with an additional 400,000 doses expected soon. More than 2,100 health workers will assist in administering the vaccines.
Vaccination coverage of at least 90 percent is required in each round to effectively combat the virus, given Gaza’s challenging conditions of overcrowding, displacement, and disrupted health services.
The vaccination initiative follows the detection of poliovirus in Gaza in July. On August 23, the World Health Organization confirmed that a child in Gaza had been paralyzed by the type 2 poliovirus, marking the first case in the territory in 25 years.
In addition to the vaccination campaign, the UAE has provided over 40,000 tonnes of emergency supplies, including food, medical aid, and shelter materials, since Israel’s military offensive against Hamas began in Gaza last October.
The UAE has also set up a field hospital in southern Gaza and a floating hospital at Egypt’s Al-Arish port, and established six water desalination plants in Rafah, supplying water to more than 600,000 Palestinians.
