The Gaza health ministry says it is still waiting for polio vaccines
GENEVA, Switzerland — Gaza has recorded its first polio case in 25 years, the Palestinian Authority health ministry said on Friday after UN chief Antonio Guterres called for pauses in the Israel-Hamas war to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children. Tests in Jordan confirmed the disease in a non-vaccinated ten-month-old baby from the central Gaza Strip, the health ministry in Ramallah said.
The United Nations, however, has announced that Gaza—already in its 11th month of war—has not registered any polio cases for the past 25 years. Meanwhile, type 2 poliovirus was detected in samples collected from the area’s wastewater in June.
Doctors suspected that some symptoms are consistent with polio,” the health ministry said. The infection was confirmed after conducting the necessary tests in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
It came a few days after Guterres urged two seven-day breaks in the Gaza war to administer vaccinations to more than 640,000 children. According to UN health and children’s agencies, detailed plans have been prepared to reach every child in the besieged Palestinian territory starting later this month. That plan would, however, be conditional on a break in the conflicts between Israel and Hamas, said the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
They said they were planning two rounds of a vaccination campaign across the Gaza Strip, starting in late August, against type 2 poliovirus. “WHO and UNICEF request all parties to the conflict to implement humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip for seven days to allow for two rounds of vaccination campaigns to take place,” they said. A WHO spokeswoman explained that they had asked for seven days in each round.
“These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination,” the statement said. Without the humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the campaign will not be possible.”
“The Gaza Strip has been polio-free for the last 25 years, the WHO and UNICEF said. The re-emergence, as the humanitarian community warned in the past 10 months, poses yet another threat to children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries.
“A ceasefire is the only way to ensure public health security in the Gaza Strip and the region.”War broke out on October 7 when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251. It is believed that 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.
According to the Gaza health ministry run by Hamas, more than 40,000 people in the Strip have so far been killed or are considered missing in the fighting, though it is not possible to verify the toll and it does not make any distinction between civilians and fighters. Israel says some 17,000 combatants have been killed in battle as of August, and another 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
