- Commencement of Polio Vaccination Campaign in Gaza
In theContentious Gaza Strip, an initiative to vaccinate countless children against the polio virus has commenced. This was affirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva as well as the Gaza Health Ministry. This large-scale inoculation is being executed by local health authorities, UNICEF, and UNRWA, as mentioned by a WHO spokesperson.
A medical representative from a Deir al-Balah hospital informed the German Press Agency that the initial vaccinations would occur at various facilities and schools in the central region of the coastal strip, including numerous refugee camps in the area.
Vaccination drive to continue for a week
During this vaccination drive, which is anticipated to persist for approximately a week and expand to additional parts of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military intends to maintain limited truces in specific locations and times.
Medical centers, doctors' offices, and mobile teams will administer roughly 640,000 doses of the vaccine against the highly infectious virus, which can result in polio-typical paralysis, according to the WHO. Normally, two doses of the vaccine are administered four weeks apart.
After the first instance of childhood paralysis in the disputed Palestinian territory in 25 years, the vaccination campaign aims to prevent a severe outbreak of the disease.
Poverty and unhygienic conditions in Gaza Strip
Since the onset of the Gaza conflict following Hamas's assault on the Israeli border region on October 7 last year, numerous infants in the isolated coastal area have remained unvaccinated. The WHO stated that poor hygiene conditions in the Gaza Strip, where clean water is scarce, many people live in close quarters, and there are also numerous displaced persons, can facilitate the swift spread of the disease.
At a press conference for the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, some children were given their first vaccination prior to the official start of the campaign. The WHO referred to it as an inaugural ceremony.
In the past, the Israeli military has repeatedly declared multiple-hour pauses in its activities in sections of the Gaza Strip, primarily to facilitate further aid deliveries. It was initially unclear if the discovery of the remains of six hostages by the Israeli military would influence the announced truces.
Benjamin Netanyahu: No truce, only pauses
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office stated that the scheduled combat interruptions would not constitute a traditional truce. Such a truce took place in November last year as part of a deal between the Israeli government and Hamas. Within this one-week truce, around 100 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Only secure zones for vaccinations and a humanitarian corridor, through which people can traverse on their way to vaccinations without danger, will be established, Netanyahu's office said.
Polio, also known as childhood paralysis, is a virus that was once widespread. Contact with it typically occurred in childhood, and especially young children were susceptible to paralysis. The highly contagious virus is usually spread through contaminated hands as a "contact infection," and also through contaminated water in countries with inadequate hygiene standards.
Only in roughly one out of 200 cases does a polio infection result in the irreversible paralysis typical of the disease – and that only among the unvaccinated. There is currently no cure.
Thanks to the global vaccination campaigns initiated in 1988, the WHO estimates that around 20 million people have avoided paralysis and 1.5 million from death due to this. Before the introduction of vaccines, there were thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths annually just in Germany. However, vaccination rates are concerningly low in numerous locations today.
The vaccination drive, aimed at protecting numerous children in the Gaza Strip from polio-typical paralysis, will continue for a week and potentially expand to other areas. Due to poverty and unhygienic conditions in the Gaza Strip, many infants have remained unvaccinated, making them vulnerable to the highly infectious virus.
