There is great concern about the spread of the dangerous polio virus in the Gaza Strip. But now there are initial successes: 86,000 children have already been vaccinated against the virus. Hundreds of thousands more vaccinations are planned.
After the first case of polio in the Gaza Strip, a large-scale vaccination campaign has got off to a good start. According to a spokeswoman for the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, 86,000 children had already been vaccinated by Sunday. A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization (WHO) also confirmed that many vaccination sites were well attended.
Since Sunday, children have been able to receive a vaccination against the highly contagious poliovirus in vaccination centers. In this first phase, around 156,000 boys and girls under the age of ten are to be vaccinated in the center of the Gaza Strip by Tuesday afternoon. If at least 90 percent of children in the area are not reached, the campaign can be extended by one day.
UNRWA reports ongoing fighting
At the urging of the World Health Organization (WHO), Israel agreed a few days ago to “humanitarian pauses” in the Gaza war in order to be able to vaccinate a total of more than 640,000 children against polio. Israel therefore agreed to spatially and temporally limited ceasefires in order not to endanger vaccination staff and families.
Dark areas: populated areas, hatching: Israeli military activities
Nevertheless, ongoing fighting in the area is causing problems. “The fighting has not completely stopped,” said UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateridge. There have been repeated military strikes. For some families, it is too dangerous to go to the vaccination centers. It is also difficult for mobile vaccination teams to reach these families, said Wateridge. This also makes the distribution of the vaccine more difficult. Ceasefires only apply in certain zones between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.
300 mobile teams in action
According to the WHO, 400 vaccination stations are to be set up. In addition, almost 300 mobile teams are on the move, visiting families who cannot come to the vaccination stations. The polio vaccination consists of two drops of vaccine per dose, which are dripped onto the children's tongue. Two doses of the vaccine are usually administered four weeks apart. Polio, also known as infantile paralysis, can cause lifelong paralysis.
The first case of polio in 25 years was recently discovered in the Palestinian territory. In July, the United Nations Children's Fund also detected polio viruses in water at six locations in the Gaza Strip.
