Gaza Reports First Polio Case in 25 Years; UN Urges Mass Vaccination Campaigns
Gaza has reported its first case of polio in 25 years, marking a significant health concern in the war-torn region. The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the case on Friday, shortly after UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for pauses in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict to allow for the vaccination of hundreds of thousands of children.
The disease was confirmed in a 10-month-old child from the central Gaza Strip who had not been vaccinated. Tests conducted in Jordan verified the presence of polio, the health ministry in Ramallah reported.
The United Nations highlighted that although Gaza has been free of polio cases for a quarter of a century, type 2 poliovirus was detected in wastewater samples from the territory in June. The ongoing conflict, now in its 11th month, has exacerbated concerns about the potential spread of this highly infectious disease.
“Doctors identified symptoms consistent with polio,” stated the health ministry. “After thorough testing in Amman, Jordan, the infection was confirmed.”
This case emerged just after Guterres called for two seven-day ceasefires in the Gaza war to enable the vaccination of over 640,000 children. Poliovirus, which is primarily transmitted through sewage and contaminated water, is highly contagious and can lead to severe consequences, including paralysis, disfigurement, and even death. It primarily affects children under the age of five.
The UN’s health and children’s agencies have prepared detailed plans to vaccinate children throughout Gaza. They emphasized the urgency of pausing the conflict to facilitate these efforts.
“Preventing and containing polio’s spread requires a massive, coordinated, and urgent response,” Guterres stated at a press briefing at UN headquarters in New York. “I urge all parties to immediately provide assurances for humanitarian pauses to carry out the vaccination campaign.”
The World Health Organization and UNICEF announced plans for two seven-day vaccination campaigns across the Gaza Strip, targeting the type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2). The campaigns will begin in late August.
“These ceasefires would allow children and families to safely access health facilities, while community outreach workers could reach those who cannot access health services for polio vaccination,” the agencies said in a joint statement.
The reappearance of polio in Gaza after 25 years poses a significant threat to neighboring countries, the UN warned. “A ceasefire is essential to ensure public health security in Gaza and the wider region.”
During each phase of the vaccination campaign, the Gaza health ministry, in collaboration with UN agencies, plans to administer “two drops of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to over 640,000 children under the age of 10.” Over 1.6 million doses of nOPV2 are expected to be delivered via Israel’s Ben Gurion airport by the end of August.
The ongoing conflict began following an unprecedented attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, which resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli official figures compiled by AFP.
As of Thursday, the death toll from Israel’s retaliatory military operations in Gaza had surpassed 40,000, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is under Hamas control. The ministry has not provided a detailed breakdown of civilian and militant casualties.
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