A 2-month-old baby in war-torn Gaza has been paralyzed by the polio virus type 25, the first such case in the area in XNUMX years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday, while United Nations agencies appealed for urgent vaccination of every baby. .
Virus type 2 (cVDPV2) is responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.
United Nations agencies have called on Israel and Hamas to agree on a seven-day humanitarian pause in their 10-month war to allow vaccination campaigns to be carried out in the area.
"Polio does not differentiate between Palestinian and Israeli children," the head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) announced yesterday on the X network. "Postponing the humanitarian break increases the risk of disease spreading among children," added Filip Lazarini.
The baby, who lost mobility in the lower part of his left leg, is currently in a stable condition, said the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adanom Gebrejesus.
The WHO has announced that two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns will begin in late August and September 2024 across the densely populated Gaza Strip.
With health services in Gaza largely damaged or destroyed due to the conflict, and raw sewage spreading due to the collapse of sanitary infrastructure, the population of Gaza is particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks, Reuters points out.
The Gaza Ministry of Health first reported a case of polio in an unvaccinated 7-month-old baby XNUMX days ago in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, an area often affected by war conflicts.
On August 16, Hamas supported a United Nations request for a seven-day pause in fighting to vaccinate children in Gaza against polio, Hamas political bureau official Izzat al-Rishk said on Friday.
A few days later, Israel announced that it would facilitate the transport of polio vaccines to Gaza for about one million children.
The humanitarian unit of the Israeli army (COGAT) announced that it is coordinating with the Palestinians the procurement of 43 vials of vaccines, each with multiple doses, which will be delivered to Israel in the coming weeks for transport to Gaza.
That amount of vaccines should be enough for more than a million children, COGAT added.
In addition to allowing polio specialists to enter Gaza, the UN stated that a successful campaign would require the transport of vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step, as well as conditions that would allow the campaign to reach children in every part of this war-torn territory.
Poliomyelitis, a highly contagious virus that spreads primarily through the fecal-oral route, can attack the nervous system and cause paralysis.
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