DUBAI, September 8. /TASS/. Some 460,000 children have been vaccinated against polio in the Gaza Strip in during first eight days of the vaccination campaign, the WAM news agency reported.

According to the agency, immunization is conducted at 150 medical centers and involves more than 2,000 specialists. In all, it is planned to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza.

The immunization campaign kicked off in the Palestinian enclave on September 1. It is coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan earlier ordered to allocated $5 million to support the campaign.

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.