Polio in Gaza
In July 2024 the poliovirus was detected in waste water samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in Gaza. On 23 August the Guardian reported the first case of polio in 25 years has been found in an infant partly paralysed from the disease.
Worryingly, three other children have also been reported in the Gaza Strip presenting with suspected acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), a common symptom of polio. Their stool samples have been sent for testing to the Jordan National Polio Laboratory. With 70% of sewage pumps destroyed and no wastewater treatment plants operational, the conditions in Gaza are a perfect breeding ground for disease.
Two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are expected to be launched at the end of August and September across the Gaza Strip to prevent the spread of circulating variant type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2). World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) request all parties to the conflict to implement humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip for seven days to allow for two rounds of vaccination campaigns to take place.
These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination. Without the humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the campaign will not be possible.
Apart from attacks from Israel, another problem with distribution of polio vaccine is that it needs to be kept in a “cold chain” at temperatures of -20°C or below. This will be difficult in a region devastated by war.