Highly Infectious Polio Virus Outbreaks in Gaza City Amid ongoing Humanitarian Crisis

Samples of poliovirus were recently found in the sewage in Gaza. With thousands of children from displaced camps suffering from malnutrition, they’re all at risk of paralysis from the poliovirus. This quickly spreading disease, which has symptoms like deformities and paralysis, affects the population even more with additional hardships. 

 Efforts of surveys done by the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip with the help of UNICEF indicated that poliovirus was present in Gaza. Gaza is under a lot of pressure after a major operation by Israel’s military action that started after the Hamas attacks on October 7. 

 The Israeli Ministry of Health proclaimed that the poliovirus type 2 was found in the samples of Gaza’s sewage tested in an Israeli laboratory. The findings of these reports were supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), which compounded a health crisis warning. 

 “This is a new health disaster: the fact that poliovirus-contaminated wastewater accumulates and moves between the tents of the displacement camp and inhabited localities because of the destroyed infrastructure,” noted the Ministry of Health of Gaza. 

The ministry also focused on such urgent problems as violence and fatalities, very high occupancy rates, and lack of clean water and sanitation, where water sources are becoming more and more polluted with sewage and rubbish piles. They blamed the deterioration of these ailments on the blockade by Israel that hinders the admission of cleaning products essential in containing the spread of diseases in Gaza. 

 The ministry stated, “Identifying poliovirus in the sewer system poses risks of a genuine health disaster and exposes thousands of persons to polio. ” 

 Since polio is mainly transmitted through contaminated water and sewage, UN agencies have been fighting the menace of this condition for over forty years. Nonetheless, over the last decade, fresh outbreaks have again occurred in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while individual cases have also been noted in Nigeria. 

As a result of the crisis, the Gaza Ministry of Health required an immediate cessation of the Israeli attack so that accessibility to safe water and sewage treatment could be resumed.  

This was revealed by officials in the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah, who said wastewater treatment stations in the area had shut down because of a fuel shortage. They warned that roads may be filled with untreated sewage very soon, which means that 700,000 civilians, the majority of whom are internally displaced, may fall ill from water-borne diseases. 

 The Israel Ministry of Health accepted that detecting the poliovirus in Gaza’s wastewater is concerning for the virus in this area; they stated that health authorities in Israel are ‘closely observing and assessing the measures needed to mitigate the threat of polio in Israel.’ 

 This is a public health threat that aggravates the already existing humanitarian problem in Gaza as current homes, power, water, and food amenities are destroyed, leaving the population high and dry. The civilized world has remained very concerned about these problems and demanded expeditious solutions before a significant health crisis hits the world.