It said in a news message that more than 591,000 children under the age of 10 will receive the vaccine to protect them from the very infectious illness that begins this weekend for an expected period of five days.
The campaign follows the recent detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in the broken enclave, signaling that the infection is still circulating in the enclave and putting children at risk.
“People with low or no immunity give the virus an opportunity to continue to spread and potentially cause illness“Who said.
The UN Health Agency added that terrible sanitary conditions in Gaza, which includes overcrowding in shelters and severely damaged water and sewerage networks, had created “ideal conditions for further spread of poliovirus”.
The mass’s return of people to North and South Gaza during the ongoing ceasefire is also likely to increase the spread of polio warned.
The campaign will be led by the Palestinian Ministry of Health with the support of the WHO, the UN Children’s Agency UNICEF, Palestine Refugee Relief Agency (UNRWA) and other partners.
The agency emphasized that polio vaccines are safe and that there is no maximum number of times a child must be vaccinated where each dose provides extra protection. An extra round of shots is scheduled for April.
More to come …
