https://arab.news/nrrac
- Fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks
- WHO had initially said it aimed to vaccinate some 640,000 children, but that had likely been an overestimate of the target population
GENEVA: The WHO chief has hailed the success of the first phase of a giant polio vaccination campaign in war-ravaged Gaza after more than 560,000 children received a first dose.
“This is a massive success amidst a tragic daily reality of life across the Gaza Strip,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X, formerly Twitter.
Disease has spread with Gaza lying in ruins and the majority of its 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes due to Israel’s military assault — often taking refuge in cramped and unsanitary conditions.
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on Sept. 1, targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10, aided by localized “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.
BACKGROUND
After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on Sept. 1, targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10.
The campaign’s first phase, which first brought vaccines to children in central Gaza, then the south, and finally to the hardest-to-reach north of the territory, wrapped up Thursday.
A fresh campaign to provide a needed second dose is due to begin in about four weeks in Gaza, besieged for over 11 months.
“We admire all the health teams who conducted this complex operation,” Tedros said, also voicing gratitude to the families for turning out in droves to vaccinate their children against polio.
Poliovirus is highly infectious, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water. It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal.
It mainly affects children under the age of five.
WHO has hailed that area-specific humanitarian pauses were respected, allowing the campaign to go ahead, and has urged a broader halt in fighting to help establish humanitarian corridors and the delivery of desperately needed aid throughout the war-torn territory.
“Imagine what could be achieved with a ceasefire!” Tedros said.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Israel’s retaliation has killed at least 41,118 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
The UN human rights office says most of the dead have been women or children.