In an effort to stop an epidemic in the region devastated by the Israel-Israel conflict, Palestinian health officials and UN organizations launched a massive polio vaccination drive in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Up to Wednesday, officials intend to vaccinate youngsters in central Gaza. After that, they will go to the more severely damaged northern and southern regions of the strip. The goal of the vaccine program, which started quietly on Saturday, is to immunize roughly 640,000 children.
More than 72,600 youngsters received vaccines on Sunday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
According to the World Health Organization, Israel consented to brief ceasefires in order to boost the effort.
Early on Sunday, there were preliminary reports of Israeli strikes in central Gaza, although they were not immediately confirmed if anyone was killed or wounded. The pause ended on Sunday afternoon, according to a schedule released by Israel.
According to Israel, the immunization campaign would run for eight hours every day through September 9.
Recently, the 10-month-old boy, who is now crippled in one limb, was claimed to be Gaza’s first polio case in 25 years. According to the World Health Organization, the discovery of a paralytic case suggests that hundreds more people may be infected but aren’t exhibiting any symptoms.
The majority of polio patients do not show any symptoms, and those who do often get better in a week or so.
However, paralysis caused by polio is usually irreversible, and there is no known treatment for it. The illness may be lethal if breathing muscles are affected by the paralysis.
There are obstacles in the way of the immunization program, including the ongoing fighting, destroyed roads, and closed hospitals due to the war. Roughly 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced within the besieged territory, with hundreds of thousands crammed into squalid tent camps.
Health officials in Gaza are concerned about disease outbreaks due to uncollected garbage, bombings of critical infrastructure, and polio spread through fecal matter. Widespread hunger has made people even more vulnerable to illness.
The U.N. children’s agency hopes for a temporary truce in designated areas to enable families to reach health facilities. The vaccinations will be administered at around 160 sites across the territory, including medical centers and schools.
Children under 10 will receive two drops of oral polio vaccine in two rounds, the second to be administered four weeks after the first.
Israel allowed around 1.3 million doses into the territory last month, which are now being held in refrigerated storage in a warehouse in Deir al-Balah. Another shipment of 400,000 doses is set to be delivered to Gaza soon.
The polio virus that triggered this latest outbreak is a mutated virus from an oral polio vaccine.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 40,000 Palestinians, causing vast destruction across the territory.
The United States, Egypt, and Qatar have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the release of the remaining hostages, but the talks have repeatedly stalled and a number of sticking points remain.
(AP)
