Requires humanitarian pause to safeguard polio vaccination efforts in Gaza

Two rounds of a polio vaccination marketing campaign are anticipated to be launched on the finish of August and September 2024 throughout the Gaza Strip to forestall the unfold of circulating variant kind 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2).

WHO and UNICEF request all events to the battle to implement humanitarian pauses within the Gaza Strip for seven days to permit for 2 rounds of vaccination campaigns to happen. These pauses in combating would enable youngsters and households to securely attain well being services and neighborhood outreach staff to get to youngsters who can not entry well being services for polio vaccination. With out the humanitarian pauses, the supply of the marketing campaign won’t be doable. 

Throughout every spherical of the marketing campaign, the Palestinian Ministry of Well being (MoH), in collaboration with the World Well being Group (WHO), the United Nations Youngsters’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Aid and Works Company for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and companions, will present two drops of novel oral polio vaccine kind 2 (nOPV2) to greater than 640 000 youngsters below ten years of age.

The poliovirus was detected in July 2024 in environmental samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Worryingly, three youngsters presenting with suspected acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), a standard symptom of polio, have since been reported within the Gaza Strip. Their stool samples have been despatched for testing to the Jordan Nationwide Polio Laboratory. 

Over 1.6 million doses of nOPV2, which is used to cease cVDPV2 transmission, can be delivered to the Gaza Strip. The deliveries of the vaccines and the chilly chain tools are anticipated to transit by means of Ben Gurion Airport earlier than arriving within the Gaza Strip by the tip of August. It’s important that the transport of the vaccines and chilly chain is facilitated at each step of the journey to make sure their well timed reception, clearance and in the end supply in time for the marketing campaign. 

Detailed plans to help vaccinators and social mobilizers to achieve eligible youngsters throughout the Gaza Strip have been finalized. Vaccination can be administered by 708 groups, together with at hospitals, area hospitals, and first well being care facilities in every municipality of the Gaza Strip. Round 2700 well being staff, together with cell groups and neighborhood outreach staff, will help the supply of each rounds of the marketing campaign. This can be supported by awareness-raising efforts to mitigate the dangers of polio an infection.

At the very least 95 per cent vaccination protection throughout every spherical of the marketing campaign is required to forestall the unfold of polio and cut back the chance of its re-emergence, given the severely disrupted well being, water and sanitation techniques within the Gaza Strip. 

Different necessities for profitable marketing campaign supply embody ample money, gasoline and purposeful telecommunication networks to achieve communities with details about the marketing campaign. 

Additional efforts are underway to strengthen and broaden poliovirus surveillance and routine immunization. 

The Gaza Strip has been polio-free for the final 25 years. Its reemergence, which the humanitarian neighborhood has warned about for the final ten months, represents one more menace to the youngsters within the Gaza Strip and neighboring nations. A ceasefire is the one manner to make sure public well being safety within the Gaza Strip and the area.