- The United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) will launch a polio vaccination campaign targeting 640,000 Palestinian children on Sunday after the first polio cases in 25 years were reported in the Gaza Strip.
- Much of Gaza's health system and roads were destroyed in the war between Israel and Hamas, and its residents are scattered in isolated areas, posing challenges to the vaccination effort.
- The WHO said it had reached an agreement with Israel to suspend fighting to allow for a vaccination campaign.
U.N. health agencies and partners will begin a campaign on Sunday to vaccinate 640,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip against polio, an ambitious effort amid a devastating war that has ravaged the territory's health system.
The campaign was launched after Gaza reported its first polio case in 25 years – a 10-month-old boy who is now paralyzed in his legs. The World Health Organization says the paralyzed case indicates there may be hundreds more people who are infected but have no symptoms.
Most people infected with polio never develop symptoms, and those who do usually recover within a week. However, there is no cure, and if polio causes paralysis, it is usually permanent. If the paralysis affects the respiratory muscles, the disease can be fatal.
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The vaccination effort will not be easy: Gaza's roads are largely destroyed, its hospitals badly damaged and its population scattered across isolated areas.
The WHO said on Thursday it had agreed with Israel to temporarily halt fighting to carry out a vaccination campaign, but carrying out such a large-scale campaign in an area covered in rubble and where 90% of the Palestinians have fled will be huge challenges.
How long does it take?
Dr. Rick Pieperkorn, WHO representative in the Palestinian Territories, said the three-day vaccination campaign in central Gaza would begin on Sunday during a “humanitarian pause” lasting from 6am to 3pm, with another day potentially added if needed.
Displaced infant Abdel Rahman Abu El Jedian, who is suffering from polio, is held by his mother (center) in a makeshift tent camp in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on August 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Speaking at a video conference from Deir al-Bala in central Gaza, he said he would coordinate with Israeli authorities to shift operations to southern and northern Gaza during a similar truce.
Who will receive the vaccine?
According to WHO, the vaccination campaign will target 640,000 children under the age of 10. Each child will receive two drops of oral polio vaccine in two doses, with the second dose being given four weeks after the first.
Where are the vaccination sites?
Vaccination sites are spread inside and outside Israeli evacuation zones, from Rafah in the south to the north of the Gaza Strip.
The Ramallah Health Ministry announced Friday that it would set up more than 400 “fixed” vaccination sites, the highest in Khan Yunis, the most densely populated city with 239,300 children under the age of 10. The fixed sites include medical centers, hospitals, clinics and field hospitals.
Elsewhere in the territory, about 230 “outreach” sites – community gathering points that are not traditional health centers – will be set up where the vaccine will be distributed.
Where is the vaccine now?
Around 1.3 million doses of the vaccine passed through the Kerem Shalom checkpoint and are now being kept in a warehouse in Deir al-Balah under “cold chain storage,” meaning the warehouse can maintain the correct temperature to prevent the vaccine from losing its potency.
Another 400,000 doses of the vaccine are due to arrive in Gaza soon.
UNICEF spokesman Amar Amar said the vaccines would be transported by truck to distribution sites by a team of more than 2,000 medical volunteers.
What challenges lie ahead?
Conducting any kind of campaign that requires traversing the Gaza Strip and interacting with its health system is bound to be challenging.
The UN estimates that around 65 percent of the Gaza Strip's entire road network has been damaged, and 19 of the Gaza Strip's 36 hospitals are not functioning.
The northern part of the territory is cut off from the southern part, and travel between the two areas was difficult during the war due to Israeli military operations, which forced aid groups to abort trips due to security concerns after Israeli forces attacked convoys.
Pieperkorn said Friday that the WHO cannot go door-to-door to vaccinate people in Gaza, as it has done in other polio eradication campaigns. Asked about the feasibility of such an effort, Pieperkorn said the WHO believes “if all the pieces of the puzzle are in place, it can be done.”
How many doses do children need to receive and what happens if they miss a dose?
According to the World Health Organization, children typically need three to four doses of the oral polio vaccine (two drops per dose) to be protected from polio, and if they don't get all the doses, they are susceptible to infection.
Doctors have previously found that children who are malnourished and suffering from other illnesses may need to receive more than 10 doses of the oral polio vaccine to be fully protected.
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Are there any side effects?
Yes, but very rarely.
The oral vaccine has been given billions of times to children worldwide and is safe and effective, but in about one in 2.7 million doses, the live virus contained in the vaccine can paralyze a child who receives the infusion.
How did this outbreak in Gaza start?
The poliovirus that caused this latest outbreak is a mutated virus from the oral polio vaccine, which contains a weakened live virus that, in very rare cases, can be shed by vaccinated people and evolve into a new form that could cause a new outbreak.
