The world health body says the virus could spread even beyond Gaza if violence does not stop to allow the vaccination campaign to take place.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it is working on a polio campaign in Gaza after the virus was detected there, but the ongoing war presents multiple obstacles to the effort.
Although no clinical cases have been diagnosed so far, polio has been detected in sewage in the Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis areas of Gaza, WHO polio expert Hamid Jafari told a news conference on Wednesday.
“We need a ceasefire, even a temporary one, to carry out these campaigns. Otherwise, we risk seeing the virus spread further, including across borders,” said Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director.
On July 30, the Gaza Health Ministry declared the Palestinian territory a “polio epidemic zone,” blaming the resurgence of the virus on Israel’s ten-month military offensive and the resulting destruction of health facilities.
The ministry said the CPV2 strain of the virus was detected in sewage samples taken from the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as areas in central Gaza.
Children under five are most at risk of contracting the viral disease, particularly infants under two, as normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by the conflict.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said on Wednesday that more than a million polio vaccines would be sent to Gaza, AFP news agency reported.
Ghebreyesus said health workers needed freedom of movement in Gaza to administer vaccines, saying a ceasefire or at least a few days of calm were essential to protect Gaza’s children.
“WHO is sending more than a million polio vaccines to be administered in the coming weeks,” he said.
Humanitarian advocates have stressed the need to end violence to address the health crisis in Gaza.
Balkhy also highlighted the risk of antimicrobial resistance developing in Gaza and the possibility of such strains spreading to other countries.
Polio, which is transmitted primarily through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Polio cases have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988, thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and ongoing efforts to eradicate it completely.
Israel has restricted access to Gaza for aid groups and Israeli forces have bombed aid convoys, killing dozens of aid workers.
In addition, the Israeli offensive has put most of Gaza’s hospitals out of service. And the repeated displacement of Palestinians, who continue to be subject to evacuation orders from the Israeli military, makes it difficult to locate and access unvaccinated children.
The spread of disease in Gaza is a growing concern due to the humanitarian crisis, lack of medical supplies and Israel’s destruction of water treatment plants.
Gaza has recorded a rate of diarrhoea cases 24 times higher than normal, as well as more than 100,000 cases of scabies and lice, and 70,000 cases of skin rashes due to overcrowding, overflowing sewage and contaminated water, said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory.