Absence of ceasefire hurting fight against polio in Gaza, WHO says
The WHO says it is working on a campaign against polio in Gaza after detecting the virus. But, the continuing war presents multiple challenges to the effort. While no clinical cases have been diagnosed, polio was detected in sewage in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis areas, WHO polio specialist Hamid Jafari told reporters on Wednesday. “We need a ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire, to undertake these campaigns successfully. Otherwise, we risk the virus spreading further, including across borders,” said Hanan Balkhy, regional WHO director.
The Health Ministry in Gaza announced the Palestinian territory a “polio epidemic zone” on July 30, attributing the resurgence of the virus to Israel’s 10-month military offensive and its consequences for health infrastructure.The ministry reported that the CPV2 virus was isolated in wastewater samples from the Khan Younis area south of the Strip and central Gaza.
The viral disease is most dangerous to children under five, especially those under two, while the conflict has disrupted regular vaccination campaigns. In addition, WHO’s Director-General said that more than one million polio vaccines would be sent to Gaza on Wednesday, according to AFP news agency.
Ghebreyesus said health workers needed freedom of movement in Gaza to administer the vaccines, adding a ceasefire or at least a few days of calm was required to protect Gaza’s children. “WHO is sending more than one million polio vaccines, which will be administered in the coming weeks,” he said.
The humanitarian advocates underscored the need for ending violence to address the health crisis in Gaza. Balkhy also warned that this could lead to the development of antimicrobial resistance in Gaza itself, with a consequent risk of spread of such resistant strains into other countries.
Poliomyelitis is generally transmitted through the fecal-oral route and represents an enterovirus infection that can invade nervous tissue to cause paralysis. The cases of polio have fallen by 99 percent worldwide since 1988 because of mass vaccination campaigns, and the efforts are still on to eradicate it. Most of the hospitals in Gaza are out of order due to the Israeli offensive.
And repeated displacement of Palestinians, continuously facing evacuation orders by the Israeli military, locating or reaching the unvaccinated children was quite a tough job. There are also fears over a disease spread in Gaza with the humanitarian crisis, lack of medical supplies, and destruction of water sanitation plants by Israel.
It accounted for 24 times the usual rate of diarrhea cases, with more than 100,000 cases of scabies and lice and 70,000 cases of skin rashes from overcrowding, overflowing sewage, and contaminated water, said Richard Peeperkorn, a representative of WHO in the occupied Palestinian territory.
