CAIRO, September 13. /TASS/. The second 14-day phase of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip will kick off in two weeks, Gaza’s health ministry said.

"During the next phase of the polio vaccination campaign, which will be held in Gaza in two to four weeks, children will receive the second vaccine dose," it said.

According to the ministry’s data released not long ago, around 560,000 children, or 87%, received the first dose of the vaccine. Palestine’s Health Minister Majid Abu Ramadan said earlier that it was planned to immunize at least 640,000 children under ten in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza’s health ministry said on August 30 that the vaccination campaign for polio initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) would be held in the Palestinian enclave from September 1 through 12. The campaign kicked off in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza on September 1 and continued in other central Gaza settlements until September 4. Then, medics moved to Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip from September 5 through 8, and to the city of Gaza and northern areas on September 9-12.

Palestine’s health ministry said on August 16 that the first polio case had been confirmed in the central Gaza Strip. According to the ministry, the first polio case was registered in the city of Deir al-Balah in a ten-month baby who had receives no vaccine dose. The diagnosis was confirmed in a laboratory in Amman.

On the same day, WHO and UNICEF issued a joint statement announcing a two-stage polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip in late August and September.

Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age. It is caused by the poliovirus that virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread and mainly affects nerves in the spinal cord or brain stem.