Gaza: Polio Vaccination Campaign to Launch in Early September
A polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip will begin on September 1, following an agreement to three separate, zoned three-day pauses in fighting in Gaza between Hamas and the Zionist military to allow for the first round of vaccination of 640,000 children against polio, Rik Peeperkorn, a senior WHO official said on Thursday.
During a media briefing on Thursday, Peeperkorn explained that the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, and UNRWA, will administer two drops of the new oral vaccine targeting type 2 poliovirus to over 640,000 children under the age of ten during each phase of the campaign.
The initiative, which consists of two phases, is underpinned by “preliminary commitment for area-specific humanitarian pauses during the campaign.”
Speaking from Deir al-Balah in Gaza, the UN official noted that 1.26 million vaccine doses and 500 vaccine carriers have already been delivered to the region, with an additional 400,000 doses expected to arrive shortly.
A second round of vaccination would be required four weeks after the first round, said Peeperkorn.
The WHO confirmed on August 23 that one baby has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in Gaza in 25 years.
