Gaza’s health ministry calls for “immediate intervention to end the aggression and find radical solutions” to the health emergency.
Gaza’s health ministry has declared a polio outbreak across the Palestinian enclave, blaming Israel’s devastating military offensive for the spread of the deadly virus.
In a statement posted on Telegram, the ministry said Monday that the situation “poses a health threat to the residents of Gaza and neighboring countries” – the latest sign of a worsening public health emergency caused by Israel’s genocidal war since October.
Calling the outbreak a “setback” for the global polio eradication program, the ministry called for “immediate intervention to end the (Israeli) aggression and find radical solutions” to the lack of clean water and personal hygiene, damaged sewage systems and the removal of tons of garbage and solid waste.
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 efforts continue to eradicate it everywhere.
Gaza’s Health Ministry announced earlier this month that it had detected “poliovirus type 2” in coordination with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The virus was found in sewage “that accumulates and flows between the tents of the displaced,” the ministry said.
Drinking water supplies, already scarce in the densely populated Gaza Strip, are at risk of being contaminated by the virus.
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it would send more than a million polio vaccines to Gaza, which will be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children from becoming infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples.
The Israeli military, which claims to have proof of the presence of “polio virus type 2,” said it would begin offering the polio vaccine to soldiers in Gaza.
Israel’s war in Gaza has damaged and destroyed sewage and water systems, and sewage has spilled into the streets near some camps for displaced Palestinians.
Last week, the UN reported that in addition to the detection of the polio virus, there has been a widespread increase in cases of hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as health conditions deteriorate in Gaza.
“This is just the beginning of the wave of disease that the Gaza Strip will face,” Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hind Khoudary said from Deir-al Balah in central Gaza.
“Palestinians live in makeshift tents with no bathrooms, no hygiene, no access to water or sanitation. Sewage is everywhere,” she said.
Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician, told Tel Aviv Tribune in an interview earlier this month that the presence of the polio virus in sewage was a “ticking time bomb.”
“Normally, if you have a case of polio, you’re going to isolate them, you’re going to make sure they use a toilet that no one else is using, you’re going to make sure they’re not around other people, (but) that’s impossible,” she said.
“Everyone is gathering in refugee camps without having been vaccinated for at least nine months, including children who would otherwise have been vaccinated against polio and adults who, in the context of an outbreak, should receive a booster dose, including health workers.”
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