GENEVA: UN agencies on Friday called for two separate seven-day breaks in Gaza war to facilitate the vaccination of over 640,000 children against polio, which has been detected in the wastewater.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF announced plans to launch a detailed vaccination campaign starting later this month, contingent on pauses in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. They emphasized the need for these humanitarian pauses to ensure the safe distribution of vaccines.
The agencies have planned two rounds of vaccination in the Gaza Strip, beginning in late August, to combat type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2), which was identified in environmental samples collected on June 23.
WHO and UNICEF have requested the implementation of seven-day pauses during each round of the campaign. These pauses would allow children and families to safely access health facilities and enable outreach workers to reach children who are otherwise unable to get vaccinated.
Without these humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the vaccination campaign would be impossible. The Gaza Strip has been polio-free for 25 years, and its re-emergence poses a significant threat to children in the region.
During each campaign round, the Gaza health ministry, with support from UN agencies, plans to administer two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to over 640,000 children under ten. More than 1.6 million doses of nOPV2 are expected to transit through Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport by the end of August.
Poliovirus, transmitted through contaminated water and sewage, is highly infectious and can cause paralysis and death, primarily affecting children under five.
The ongoing conflict, triggered by Hamas’s attack on October 7, has resulted in significant casualties, with over 40,000 reported dead in Gaza according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
