Palestinian health officials reported the first polio case in years in the Gaza Strip on Friday. The case was discovered in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in Deir al-Balah, a city in Gaza. The child’s symptoms were identified, and tests conducted in Amman, Jordan, confirmed the diagnosis of polio, according to the ministry.
Polio, a potentially deadly and paralysing disease, primarily affects children under the age of 5 and is usually transmitted through contaminated water.The only countries where polio transmission has never been interrupted are Pakistan and Afghanistan.
UN health and children’s agencies have requested seven-day breaks in the fighting, beginning at the end of August, to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children against polio. They reported that the polio virus had been found in wastewater in two major cities in Gaza last month, which had been polio-free for the past 25 years, according to the United Nations.
Since the latest war began on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, the humanitarian community has warned of the re-emergence of polio. Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people in Gaza during the 10-month conflict and has created a severe humanitarian crisis, which health officials say has resulted in a public health emergency.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in July that a type 2 variant was found in wastewater samples from southern Khan Younis and central Deir al-Balah, and was linked to a poliovirus variant last detected in Egypt in 2023.
Although the WHO did not confirm the polio case, it said earlier on Friday that three children in Gaza were diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis, a common symptom of polio characterized by the onset of weakness or paralysis with reduced muscle tone.
The WHO said that by the end of August, more than 1.6 million doses of the polio vaccine are expected to arrive in Gaza, in time for the vaccination campaigns, which would need to be carried out in two rounds. Children under the age of 10 will receive two drops of the oral vaccine against type 2 of the polio virus.
Health officials in Gaza said on Friday that they will be unable to prevent the spread and treat people without an immediate cease-fire in place.
Polio, a potentially deadly and paralysing disease, primarily affects children under the age of 5 and is usually transmitted through contaminated water.The only countries where polio transmission has never been interrupted are Pakistan and Afghanistan.
UN health and children’s agencies have requested seven-day breaks in the fighting, beginning at the end of August, to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children against polio. They reported that the polio virus had been found in wastewater in two major cities in Gaza last month, which had been polio-free for the past 25 years, according to the United Nations.
Since the latest war began on October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, the humanitarian community has warned of the re-emergence of polio. Israel’s devastating retaliatory offensive has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people in Gaza during the 10-month conflict and has created a severe humanitarian crisis, which health officials say has resulted in a public health emergency.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in July that a type 2 variant was found in wastewater samples from southern Khan Younis and central Deir al-Balah, and was linked to a poliovirus variant last detected in Egypt in 2023.
Although the WHO did not confirm the polio case, it said earlier on Friday that three children in Gaza were diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis, a common symptom of polio characterized by the onset of weakness or paralysis with reduced muscle tone.
The WHO said that by the end of August, more than 1.6 million doses of the polio vaccine are expected to arrive in Gaza, in time for the vaccination campaigns, which would need to be carried out in two rounds. Children under the age of 10 will receive two drops of the oral vaccine against type 2 of the polio virus.
Health officials in Gaza said on Friday that they will be unable to prevent the spread and treat people without an immediate cease-fire in place.