WHO: Polio Vaccination Campaign in Gaza Needs More Time for Adequate Coverage
The polio vaccination campaign for children under 10 is set to begin in Gaza on Sunday and will last three days in each zone: central, south, and north of Gaza, with humanitarian pauses during the distribution.
“Due to insecurity, damage to roads and infrastructure, and population movement and displacement, three days in each area is unlikely to be enough to achieve adequate coverage,” Ghebreyesus said during a press briefing.
He emphasized that vaccination coverage will be monitored throughout the campaign and that it has been agreed to extend the vaccination period by one day wherever necessary.
Ghebreyesus also stressed the importance of protecting vaccination teams and allowing them to conduct the campaigns safely, urging all parties to ensure the protection of health facilities and children.
“Humanitarian pauses are welcome, but ultimately, the only solution to safeguard the health of the children of Gaza is a ceasefire,” he added.
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Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, informed a UN briefing earlier on Friday that the polio vaccination campaign will provide two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to more than 640,000 children under age 10.
Peeperkorn noted that 1.26 million doses of vaccines and 500 vaccine carriers have been delivered to Gaza, with an additional 400,000 vaccine doses expected to arrive soon.
He also mentioned that over 2,180 health workers and community outreach workers have been trained to administer the vaccinations and inform communities about the campaign.
“At least 90 percent vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign is needed to stop the outbreak and prevent the international spread of polio,” Peeperkorn stressed.
The agreement came after a 10-month-old baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus that vaccinated people shed in their waste.
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Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian, who was born just before Israel’s war on Gaza erupted on October 7, was one of hundreds of thousands of children who missed vaccinations because of the war.
The Israeli regime launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.
The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 40,602 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 93,855 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.
Source: Agencies
