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More than 150,000 children in the Gaza Strip received their required second dose of oral polio vaccine in the first two days of the second campaign, the WHO director-general announced on Wednesday.
The second wave of a polio vaccination campaign aimed at inoculating more than 590,000 children under the age of 10 began on Monday, despite continued Israeli military operations in some parts of the Palestinian territories.
“A total of 156,943 children in central Gaza received their second dose of the polio vaccine two days after vaccination,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X. .
“Vaccination continues today. At the same time, 128,121 children received vitamin A supplements.
“We ask that the humanitarian moratorium continue to be respected. We call for a ceasefire and peace.”
As with the first round of vaccinations last month, the second round will be divided into three phases to support localized “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting. It will first take place in central Gaza, then in the south, and finally in northern Gaza, which is the most difficult to reach area. territory.
Each phase will take three campaign days and one make-up day to monitor and vaccinate missed children.
The vaccination drive began after the first polio case in 25 years was confirmed in the Gaza Strip.
The disease has reemerged in besieged Gaza, where war has left most medical facilities and sewage systems in ruins.
Poliovirus is often spread through sewage and contaminated water and is highly contagious. It can cause deformities and paralysis, primarily affects children under the age of five, and can be fatal.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic told reporters on Tuesday that nearly 93,000 vaccinations were administered in central Gaza on Monday’s first day “without any major problems.”
The estimated target population in the Chubu region is more than 179,000 children under the age of 10.
“I hope parents will continue to come,” Jasarevic said.
After the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, Israel launched a military operation in Gaza, killing 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, including hostages who were captured and killed, according to an AFP tally of Israeli government officials. person) died.
The Israeli military operations have killed 42,409 people, most of them civilians, according to health ministry statistics in Hamas-held areas considered reliable by the United Nations.
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