A young child is detained before being vaccinated against polio in Deir el-Bala, central Gaza Strip, on September 4, during the first wave of a massive UN-led polio vaccination campaign. . Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images Hide caption
Toggle caption Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
Health workers are preparing to administer second doses of the polio vaccine to some 590,000 children in the Gaza Strip starting Monday.
The first wave of a mass vaccination campaign was carried out last month and was widely considered a success. According to the World Health Organization, about 590,000 children under the age of 10, or about 95% of eligible children, were vaccinated against polio over a 12-day period.
The agency said this second dose is critical to stopping the spread of the virus within Gaza and internationally. But the success of the vaccine rollout depends on a pause in the humanitarian fight.
At a UN press conference on Friday, UNICEF’s Special Representative for the State of Palestine, Jean Gough, said the organization had received “reassurances” from the Israeli military and continued with “all parties to the conflict” about plans to suspend several conflicts. He said he has been in contact with the company. for several hours each day in areas where vaccines are being rolled out.
“It went well in the first round and I’m confident it will go well in the second round,” Goff said.
Similar to last month’s operation, the upcoming campaign will include three geographically based phases, with each phase lasting three to four days. During this round, children are also given vitamin A to boost their overall immunity. Another goal is to get vaccines to children who did not receive their first dose of polio vaccine last month.
The WHO initially aimed to vaccinate around 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip. However, after last month’s campaign, government agencies said they may have overestimated the number of children in the Gaza Strip, saying the ongoing displacement and deaths caused by Israel’s war with Hamas may have affected the number of children. He added that it may have had an impact. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks during the year-long war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The vaccination campaign comes amid a new evacuation order from the Israeli military for Palestinians in the heavily fought northern Gaza Strip, the Associated Press reported. Patients and medical staff at the region’s three main hospitals have also been told to evacuate. Approximately 90% of Gaza’s residents have been evacuated.
Over the summer, poliovirus was detected in Gaza’s sewage, and soon after, a 10-month-old infant was diagnosed with the virus, the first in 25 years in Gaza. As a result, the baby developed paralysis in one leg. Health authorities sequenced the poliovirus in Gaza and determined it was derived from a strain last seen in Egypt in 2023.
Approximately 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine have been delivered to Gaza in the past two months. The WHO said at least 90% of all children in Gaza need to be vaccinated to contain the outbreak.
