Aid groups call for immediate pause in Gaza war for polio vaccination to avert outbreak

Aid groups have called for an immediate humanitarian pause in the war in the Gaza Strip to facilitate the vaccination of over 600,000 children in an attempt to avert a widespread outbreak amid the growing threat of polio in the besieged territory.

The appeal was made on Saturday after Palestinian health officials reported the first case of polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child in the city of Deir al-Balah, the first case since the virus was eradicated 25 years ago.

The aid groups further noted that Gaza has become a breeding ground for the virus as Israel continues its genocidal war on the blockaded territory.

Francis Hughes, the Gaza response director at CARE International said “We are anticipating and preparing for the worst-case scenario of a polio outbreak in the coming weeks or month.”

Gaza records first polio case in 25 years as UN calls for truce

The Health Ministry in Gaza has said that it detected the first polio case in the besieged strip.

In a joint statement on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also said a pause of at least seven days is needed to carry out a mass vaccination plan.

They also stated that three children are suspected of being infected, adding that their stool samples were being tested by a laboratory in Jordan.

“This is very concerning,” UNICEF spokesperson Ammar Ammar said, stressing that “It is impossible to carry out the vaccination in an active war zone and the alternative would be unconscionable for the children in Gaza and the whole region.”

The UN aims to bring 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine into Gaza, where sanitation and water systems have been destroyed and thousands of people in crowded tents are now at risk of contracting the highly infectious disease.

The mass vaccination campaign is scheduled to begin at the end of August and continue into September and its goal is to immunize 640,000 children under the age of 10 over two rounds of vaccinations.

Mercy Corps aid group has estimated that some 50,000 babies born since the war began in early October last year have not been immunized against polio.

Aid workers anticipate the number of suspected cases will rise, expressing fear that the disease could be hard to contain without urgent intervention and a ceasefire.

Back in July, Gaza’s Health Ministry declared a polio epidemic after the polio virus was detected in samples of sewage that was starting to take over the territory.  

Polio epidemic declared in Gaza amid worsening health crisis

The WHO recently warned of a high risk of the polio virus spreading across the Israeli-bombarded Palestinian region.

Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of US-based humanitarian organization MedGlobal has warned that the detection of polio in the sewage system in Gaza is another indication of the collapse of the healthcare system and lack of sanitation.

He also said, “The frequent displacement of the majority of the population adds to the catastrophic humanitarian situation,” emphasizing that completing a successful polio vaccination campaign under these conditions is challenging.

Sahloul further stressed that “a ceasefire, or at the very least a humanitarian pause, is urgently needed to give this urgent polio vaccination campaign a fighting chance.”

The latest development comes as Gaza ceasefire talks will resume in the Egyptian capital Cairo next week.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has already said it would support a seven-day truce to facilitate the vaccinations.

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