COGAT, the Israeli military body that manages civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, announced this Sunday the entry of 25.100 vials of polio vaccines into Gaza, after the devastated enclave recorded its first case in 25 years.
The doses were supplied by UNICEF, this agency confirmed to the press, and can immunize more than 1,2 million children, COGAT said.
“Another additional 400.000 doses will come in in about a week. In total, 1,6 million doses,” explained Jonathan Crickx, head of UNICEF Communications in the State of Palestine.
UNICEF, together with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNRWA and other humanitarian entities, have the objective of vaccinating more than 640.000 children under 10 years of age against type 2 polio, as long as the war allows.
Vaccination will be carried out in two rounds – to inject two doses: the first from the end of August and the second, from the end of September to the beginning of October.
“(This) must be allowed through a ceasefire or, at a minimum, a pause in the fighting,” Crickx added, so that children and their families can reach health centers safely.
Nine days ago, the Palestinian Ministry of Health registered the first case of polio in the Strip in a 10-month-old child who had not been vaccinated and who is already showing symptoms of paralysis, as announced by UNRWA.
The vaccination rate for this disease has fallen in Gaza during the war from 99% in 2022 to 89%.
The polio virus type 2 is transmitted through the consumption of water contaminated with fecal remains, and appeared in the majority of samples taken by the WHO in the south of the Strip at the end of June, triggering warnings of the possibility of will develop an outbreak.
Overcrowding, shortages of cleaning and hygiene products and water, and the accumulation of waste due to the war created a breeding ground for the transmission of the disease in Gaza.
Israel, for its part, announced at the end of July that it was going to undertake a virus vaccination campaign for its soldiers fighting.
#Gaza #receives #polio #vaccines #immunize #million #children
2024-08-29 15:12:08
