The Health Ministry in Gaza has said that it detected the first polio case in the besieged enclave, hours after United Nations officials called for a pause in the fighting to enable a vaccination campaign for children against the virus.
In a statement on Friday, the Health Ministry blamed the “difficult” conditions in Gaza – including the spread of sewage water in the streets, shortages of medical supplies and lack of personal hygiene products due to the Israeli blockade – for the emergence of the virus in the territory.
Hours earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had called for humanitarian pauses in the war in Gaza to conduct a polio vaccine campaign.
“It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.
Guterres appealed for assurances of humanitarian pauses to be provided immediately from the warring parties as he warned that preventing and containing the spread of polio in Gaza would take a massive coordinated and urgent effort.
“Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” Guterres said. “But in any case, a polio pause is a must.”
The UN chief added that the organisation is poised to launch a polio vaccine campaign in Gaza for children under the age of 10, but he said the “challenges are grave”.
At least 95 percent vaccination coverage will be needed during each of the two rounds of the campaign to prevent polio’s spread and reduce its emergence, given the devastation in Gaza, Guterres said.
He noted that a successful campaign would require the facilitation of transport for vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step, the entry of polio experts into Gaza, as well as reliable internet and phone services.
According to the UN agency for children (UNICEF), the vaccination will be administered in two rounds and is expected to be launched at the end of August and September this year across the Gaza Strip.
The Health Ministry in Gaza also said the vaccination campaign cannot be successful without a ceasefire that would allow medical teams to access people freely across the territory.
“We stress that the vaccination campaign will not be sufficient without comprehensive solutions to the issues of sewage and the accumulation of garbage between the tents of displaced people, and providing drinkable water and ending the aggression,” it said.
“The Health Ministry stresses that the spread of this virus will not stop at Gaza’s borders, and the international institutions and relevant sides must take the necessary steps to end its spread inside and outside Gaza.”
Hamas had said it supports the UN request for a humanitarian pause to vaccinate children against polio.
“Hamas also demands the delivery of medicine and food to more than two million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip,” Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the group’s political bureau, said in a statement.
In July, Gaza’s Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic in Gaza and blamed Israel’s military offensive in the enclave as the reason behind the spread of the deadly virus. The Israeli military said in July it had already begun vaccinating its soldiers against the disease.
Polio has been detected in wastewater in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates, Dr Hamid Jafari, a World Health Organization (WHO) polio specialist, said earlier this month.
