NEW YORK – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called on both sides of the conflict in Gaza to provide concrete guarantees to declare humanitarian ceasefires to allow for a polio vaccination campaign.
Guterres, speaking to reporters at the United Nations, appealed for immediate guarantees.
He stressed that preventing and containing the spread of polio in Gaza will require massive, coordinated and urgent efforts.
“Let us be clear: the ultimate vaccine against polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” Guterres said.
“But in any case, a truce for polio vaccination is a must. It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign while there is war everywhere,” he continued.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said in a statement on Friday that it had detected the first confirmed case of polio in the Gaza Strip in the city of Deir al-Balah, in a 10-month-old infant who had not received any dose of vaccination against the disease.
Guterres added that the United Nations is preparing to launch a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza for children under the age of ten, but he said that “the challenges are serious.”
Guterres explained that at least 95 percent of children need to be vaccinated during each of the two rounds of the campaign to prevent the spread of polio and limit its resurgence in light of the devastation inflicted on Gaza.
He added that the success of the campaign requires facilitating the transportation of vaccines and refrigeration equipment at every step, the entry of polio experts into Gaza, reliable internet and mobile phone services, and other elements.
The health ministry there declared the strip a polio epidemic last month, attributing the outbreak to the ongoing Israeli military offensive.
Dr. Hamed Jafari, director of the WHO polio eradication programme, said at a press conference earlier this month that poliovirus had been detected in sewage in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, adding that the virus had likely been circulating since September.
A senior Western official, who asked not to be identified, said they understood there was at least one confirmed case and two suspected cases among Palestinians in the Strip, adding that there may not be a single humanitarian truce but multiple shorter periods of cessation of fighting.
The danger is that the outbreak threatens not only Gaza, which the official described as a “ticking time bomb.”
The official explained that when the rainy season begins late this fall, the polluted sewage could “transfer” into the aquifer from which Israel, Egypt and Jordan draw water.
Polio is a highly contagious virus that can attack the nervous system and cause paralysis. It is transmitted by ingesting food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person.
Children under five are most at risk, especially infants under two, as regular vaccination campaigns have been halted due to the 10-month-old war.
Public health officials and aid organizations warn that Gazans are particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks in the absence of adequate health services.
Reuters
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2024-08-17 16:10:02
