The United Nations and its partners launched a campaign Sunday to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children in Gaza, an ambitious effort to vaccinate against polio amid a devastating war that has devastated the territory’s health care system.
The campaign comes after the first polio case was reported in Gaza in 25 years, a 10-month-old boy whose legs are now paralyzed. The World Health Organization said the paralysis case suggests there may be hundreds more people infected but showing no symptoms.
The vaccination effort will not be easy, with most of Gaza’s roads destroyed, hospitals badly damaged and its population spread out into remote areas. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for a ceasefire ahead of plans to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza with polio.
“#polio vaccination teams must be protected and allowed to conduct future campaigns in #Gaza safely. We urge all parties to ensure their protection, health facilities and children,” Ghebreyesus wrote on X, as reported by the Guardian, Sunday (1/9).
A series of pauses in fighting will begin this weekend in Gaza to allow for vaccinations against polio, which has returned to the Strip. “Humanitarian pauses are welcome, but ultimately, the only solution to safeguard the health of Gaza’s children is a ceasefire,” he concluded. (I-2)
#Vaccinate #Children #Gaza
