London: More than 1 million children in the Gaza Strip are at risk of contracting poliovirus type 2, a highly contagious disease that can lead to paralysis and even death, as displacement and destruction of health infrastructure leave the population vulnerable to the disease. accepts
The World Health Organization has announced plans to send 1.2 million polio vaccines to Gaza after the virus was identified in sewage samples taken last month from refugee camps in the northern provinces of Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah.
Although no clinical cases of polio have been diagnosed so far, WHO regional director Hanan Balkhi warned that the virus could spread “including across borders” unless agencies moved quickly to vaccinate the population. do
However, any mass polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, targeting 600,000 children under the age of 8, will face challenges, not least of which is the lack of a ceasefire that would allow doctors to safely enter displaced communities. get access
“We need a ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire, to carry out these campaigns successfully,” Balkhi told a press conference on Wednesday.
Children under the age of 5, and especially infants, are most at risk of contracting polio, as many skipped the routine vaccination campaigns that began before the conflict began in Gaza on October 7.
This virus, which is spread through contact with feces, saliva, or nasal mucus of an infected person, attacks the nerves of the spinal cord and brain stem and leads to partial or total paralysis within a few hours.
It can also immobilize the chest muscles and cause breathing problems and even death.
Polio was eradicated in Europe in 2003 thanks to an effective vaccination campaign. There have been no confirmed cases of polio paralysis in the UK since 1984.
Cases of wild poliovirus have declined by more than 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350,000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries to six reported cases in 2021.
Of the three strains of wild poliovirus, type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and type 3 was eradicated in 2020. As of 2022, type 1 remained endemic in only two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
In Gaza, overcrowding, a lack of clean water and sanitary materials, a deteriorating sanitation system, and the destruction of health facilities have all contributed to the resurgence of type 2, according to Hamid Jafari, director of polio eradication at the World Health Organization. Press briefing
The United Nations estimates that at least 70 percent of Gaza's water and sanitation facilities, including sewage treatment plants and sewage pumping stations, have been damaged or destroyed since the conflict began.
In late July, Gaza's health authorities declared the area a “polio epidemic zone” and blamed the resurgence of the virus on Israel's bombing campaign and subsequent damage to the health care system.
The Israeli army began bombing the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel. Although the IDF insists it does not target civilian infrastructure, schools, hospitals and electrical installations have been heavily damaged.
More than 490 attacks on medical facilities and personnel, recorded by the United Nations in just the first six months of the war, have shattered Gaza's health care system. Only 16 of Gaza's 36 health centers are partially functional.
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1.2 million WHO plans to send polio vaccines to Gaza to prevent the spread of this disease.
600,000 Children under 8 years of age are targeted for vaccination.
70% Some of the health facilities in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.
1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced several times since the conflict began.
According to the US-based NGO Physicians for Human Rights, there are three of these centers in the north, seven in Gaza City, three in Deir al-Balah, three in Khan Yunis and none in the southern city of Rafah.
“Every day in July has been one shock after another,” Javed Abdel Munaim, a medical team leader for Doctors Without Borders, who was working at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza last month, told the organization.
“I came in through the curtain, and there was a little girl alone, dying by herself,” she said, recounting one particularly harrowing incident. And this is the result of a collapsed health system. An 8-year-old girl who dies alone on a wheelchair in the emergency room.
“In a functioning health system, he would have been saved.”
Despite pleas from the World Health Organization and other aid agencies to the warring parties in Gaza to allow “absolute freedom of movement” so doctors can launch a vaccination campaign, a ceasefire appears no closer.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army issued a new evacuation order for several parts of northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, Menshieh and Sheikh Zayed.
Israeli army spokesman Avichai Adraei posted the evacuation order on the social networking platform X. He ordered the residents of Beit Hanoun to move “immediately” to Deir al-Balah and Zuida.
He added: “Beit Hanoun area is still considered a dangerous war zone.
Deir al-Balah and Zuida have come under regular Israeli attacks in recent months, despite assurances that these areas will be treated as safe areas where civilians can take refuge.
The United Nations reported that while nowhere in Gaza is safe, 86 percent of the besieged Palestinian territories are under Israeli evacuation orders. About 1.9 million of Gaza's population of 2.1 million have been displaced several times since October 7.
“Nowhere is safe. “Everywhere is a potential killing zone,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the opening of the UNRWA Commitment Conference on July 12.
The constant displacement of families in Gaza has made it difficult for aid agencies, already underfunded and struggling to reach the affected population, to find and identify unvaccinated children.
WHO polio expert Jafari warned that the virus may have been circulating in Gaza since September, as Gaza provides ideal conditions for its transmission.
According to the World Health Organization report, before October 7, polio vaccine coverage in the Occupied Palestinian Territories was estimated at 89%.
WHO chief Andrea King told the BBC that even if the planned 1.2 million vaccines were successfully delivered to Gaza, it would be a “huge logistical challenge” to ensure their successful deployment.
Vaccines must be kept within a limited temperature range from the moment of production to the time of injection. It will be difficult to bring these chilled vaccines to Gaza and keep them at the required temperature at the best of times.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that a ceasefire, or at least a few days of calm, was necessary to protect Gaza's children.
As of July 7, WHO recorded an increase in infectious diseases, including 1 million cases of acute respiratory infections, 577,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea, 107,000 cases of acute jaundice syndrome, and 12,000 cases of dysentery.
It says this is primarily due to a lack of safe drinking water and the destruction of an important water facility in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
