First polio case in Gaza in 25 years paralyzes baby, WHO reports

A ten-month-old baby in war-torn Gaza is paralyzed by the poliovirus type 2. It is the first such case in the region in 25 years, the World Health Organization announced on Friday. UN organizations appealed to the UN to urgently vaccinate all babies.

Although type 2 virus (cVDPV2) is not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, it has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates.

UN organizations have called on Israel and Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause during the 10-month Israeli military offensive to allow vaccination campaigns in the area to continue.

“Polio does not discriminate between Palestinian and Israeli children,” said the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday in a post on X.

“Delaying the humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children,” added Philippe Lazzarini.

The condition of the baby, who has lost the ability to move his left lower leg, is currently stable, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

The WHO has announced that two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign will begin across the densely populated Gaza Strip in late August and September 2024.

The health care system in the Gaza Strip has been largely damaged or destroyed by the fighting, and the sanitation system has also collapsed. This makes the population of the Gaza Strip particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease.

Challenge of vaccinations in war zones

The Gaza Strip's Health Ministry first reported the polio case in the ten-month-old, unvaccinated baby a week ago in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, an area often contested during the war.

On August 16, Hamas supported a UN call for a seven-day ceasefire to vaccinate children in the Gaza Strip against polio, Izzat al-Rishq, representative of the Hamas political bureau, said on Friday.

Israel, which has been besieging Gaza since last October and has razed large parts of the area to the ground with its ground offensive and bombings, announced a few days later that it would facilitate the transport of polio vaccines to Gaza for around one million children.

The Israeli military's humanitarian unit (COGAT) said it is coordinating with the Palestinians to procure 43,000 vials of vaccine, each containing multiple doses, which will be delivered in Israel and transported to Gaza in the coming weeks.

The vaccines should be enough for two rounds of vaccinations for over a million children, COGAT added.

The UN has stated that for the campaign to be successful, it is necessary not only to allow polo specialists to enter Gaza, but also to transport vaccines and refrigeration equipment for all stages, as well as to create conditions that would enable the campaign to reach children in all parts of the rubble-strewn area.

Poliomyelitis, a highly contagious virus transmitted primarily via the fecal-oral route, can affect the nervous system and cause paralysis.

Last month, traces of the polio virus were found in sewage in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, two areas in the south and center of the Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought shelter.

Children under five years of age are particularly at risk.