WHO Sends Over 1 Million Polio Vaccines to Gaza Amid Health Crisis

The World Health Organization is dispatching over one million polio vaccines to Gaza to prevent a potential outbreak among children. This follows the detection of the polio virus in sewage samples. The conflict has significantly disrupted regular vaccination campaigns. The urgency to vaccinate is heightened by deteriorating sanitary conditions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is deploying more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza over the coming weeks, aiming to protect children after the virus was detected in local sewage samples, WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus revealed on Friday. 'While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected,' he said in The Guardian.

Children under five, particularly those under two, are at the highest risk due to disrupted vaccination campaigns caused by over nine months of ongoing conflict. Poliomyelitis, highly infectious and primarily spread through the fecal-oral route, can invade the nervous system and lead to paralysis. Global cases of polio have dropped 99% since 1988, attributed to extensive vaccination efforts.

Israel's military announced on Sunday that it would begin offering the polio vaccine to soldiers stationed in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples there. The United Nations also reported last week a significant rise in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery, and gastroenteritis as Gaza's sanitary conditions worsen, with sewage spilling into streets near displaced people's camps.