Colin
Vials enough to inoculate 1.25 million people, over half of Strip’s population, as aid groups call for weeklong truce for vaccination drive following 1st case of polio in 25 years
Israel said it delivered 25,100 vials of the polio vaccine to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom Crossing on Sunday, as the United Nations has urged an inoculation campaign in the Strip following the first case of polio there in 25 years.
The vaccines will be enough to inoculate 1,255,000 people, just over half of the Strip’s population, according to COGAT, Israel’s civilian coordination agency for the Palestinian territories, which released footage of the delivery.
COGAT said “international and local medical teams” will administer the vaccines in various locations over the coming days to children who have not yet received a dose, “as part of the routine humanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centers where the vaccinations will be administered.”
The World Health Organization and UNICEF, the UN child welfare agency, have said that fighting in Gaza must pause for at least seven days to vaccinate some 640,000 children. The agencies say the campaign will be carried out in every municipality in Gaza, with help from 2,700 workers.
COGAT has vowed a “joint effort” with the international community to combat polio in Gaza. On Friday, five trucks brought into the Strip equipment to store and transport the vaccines, COGAT said, adding that it had coordinated the delivery with UNICEF.
So-called cold chain components, such as refrigerators, arrived Wednesday at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, AFP reported on Thursday.
Pressure has mounted for an inoculation campaign after the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority health ministry said on August 16 that tests in Jordan had confirmed the presence of poliovirus in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.
The child is paralyzed in his lower left leg but is otherwise stable, The Guardian reported Friday, citing WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Other polio cases are suspected across Gaza after the virus was detected in wastewater in six different locations in the Strip in July.
Polio is highly contagious and transmits mainly through contact with contaminated feces, water or food. It can cause difficulty breathing and irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. It strikes young children in particular and is sometimes fatal.
The UN has aimed to bring 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine into Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are crowded into tent camps lacking clean water or proper disposal of sewage and garbage.
According to COGAT, “282,126 vials of the polio vaccine, intended for 2,821,260 vaccinators,” have been brought into Gaza through Kerem Shalom since the war was sparked on October 7 with the Hamas-led onslaught on southern Israel.
Before the war, 99% of Gaza’s population was vaccinated against polio. That figure is now 86%, according to the WHO.
The territory’s healthcare system has been devastated, and workers are overwhelmed. Only about a third of Gaza’s 36 hospitals and 40% of its primary healthcare facilities are functioning, according to the UN.
Speaking in Tel Aviv last week after a series of meetings with Israeli officials, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington was working with Jerusalem in order to coordinate a vaccination plan which he said would roll out in the coming weeks.
