UN aid agencies carry out polio vaccination campaign across Gaza

United Nations aid agencies began to do so roll out a polio vaccination campaign through Gaza on Sunday. But the movement could face major challenges due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. The continuation of the humanitarian pause in the fighting is crucial to the success of the vaccination rollout, which targets 640,000 children under the age of ten.

To be successful, the World Health Organization says at least 90% of children under the age of ten must be vaccinated in a relatively short period of time. Each child should receive two drops of oral polio vaccine in two rounds, the second given four weeks after the first.

The standard protocol worldwide is for the vaccine to be given to children intermittently, for example at eight, 12 and 16 weeks of age, followed by a booster after the age of three.

The oral polio vaccine is produced from live attenuated wild poliovirus. In very rare cases – a situation now occurring in Gaza due to severe disruptions caused by the war – a severely under-immunized population provides the catalyst for the transformation of the virus into pathogenic strains known as the vaccine-derived poliomyelitis virus. Such variants may in turn circulate in the community.

Poliomyelitis, also known as polio or infantile paralysis, is a systemic viral infection that can be prevented by vaccination. Most infections are asymptomatic; up to 70% of infected individuals experience no symptoms and about 25% have mild symptoms. Paralytic poliomyelitis occurs in less than 1% of all infections. However, the mortality rate for acute paralytic polio ranges from 5 to 15%. Historically, it has been a leading cause of infant mortality, acute paralysis, and lifelong disability. But large-scale immunization programs implemented since the 1950s have eliminated polio from most parts of the world. The disease is now limited to a few endemic areas, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, while sporadic cases occur from time to time around the world.

In the late 1990s, authorities declared Gaza polio-free. However, the regional Ministry of Health confirmed a case of symptomatic polio in an unvaccinated ten-month-old child in Deir Al-Balah late last month. The baby is partially paralyzed by the disease. There have been those too reports of other suspected cases.

In addition, the virus has been found in sewage samples from sites in the Gazan cities of Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah, the World Health Organization said. reported last month.

The fact that polio is often an asymptomatic virus increases its ability to spread quickly. The more people are infected, the greater the chance that there will be people suffering from serious complications such as paralysis and breathing problems.

The pathogen is sent through contact with the feces of an infected child or consumption of water or food contaminated with feces. Overcrowded living conditions, poor sanitation, limited access to clean water and untreated sewage flowing openly between tents in Gaza refugee camps increase the risk of all kinds of infectious diseases, both bacterial and viral, including polio. And Gaza’s collapsed healthcare system is exacerbating the problem of allowing the polio virus to spread unchecked.

The first full day of the first three-day period of the vaccination campaign started on Sunday. A second three-day period will begin in four weeks. More than 2,000 healthcare workers are involved in this potentially dangerous mission. The rollout depends on lulls in the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants. Other challenges include the cold chain storage needed for the vaccines to maintain their potency and the ability of teams of people involved in the immunization effort to reach some of the more than 600 vaccination sites across the Gaza Strip. reaches.