GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Friday that the first case of polio has been recorded, while UNICEF called for a 7-day humanitarian truce to vaccinate around 640,000 children against the deadly disease.
Marwan Al-Hams, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, announced the detection of the first positive case of “polio” in the Gaza Strip. He warned that with this first confirmed case, the Strip will start recording more cases, as for every detected case there are estimated to be around 200 undetected and asymptomatic cases.
In this context, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) called for a 7-day truce in the Gaza Strip to allow two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns. The organization stressed that without these humanitarian pauses, it will not be possible to implement the campaign.
UNICEF explained that this truce will allow children and families to safely access health facilities, and also allow community awareness workers to reach children who cannot access health facilities for vaccination.
Last July, the World Health Organization revealed a high likelihood of a polio outbreak in Gaza and its surrounding areas due to the dismal health situation and the deterioration of the sanitation system in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. Ayadil Saparbekov, head of the WHO health emergency team in Gaza and the West Bank, said that polio virus has been detected in sewage samples in Gaza.
Polio is a highly contagious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis, mainly affecting children under the age of five.
