UNITED NATIONS, August 27. /TASS/. The United Nations is organizing 11 health centers in the Gaza Strip that will conduct a vaccination campaign against polio, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General, said.
"On the health front, following the delivery of polio vaccines into Gaza, our colleagues on the ground are now positioning them in 11 health centers, and are training over 1,000 medical workers and volunteers to participate in the campaign," he said. "The vaccine will be provided to more than 640,000 children under 10 years of age, with the aim of reaching at least 95% of the children in the first round."
"The safest and most effective way to protect children against the polio virus, regardless of the variant, is to vaccinate them," he stressed.
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. "WHO and UNICEF request all parties to the conflict to implement humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip for seven days to allow for two rounds of vaccination campaigns to take place. These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination. Without the humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the campaign will not be possible," said the document that was posted on UNICEF’s website.
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.