Israel-Gaza war: aid groups aim to avert a polio outbreak with vaccination surge
- The 1.6 million doses being brought into Gaza will be an advanced version of the vaccine that is less prone to mutating into an outbreak
The threat of polio is rising fast in the Gaza Strip, prompting aid groups to call for an urgent pause in the war so they can ramp up vaccinations and head off a full-blown outbreak. One case has been confirmed, others are suspected and the virus was detected in waste water in six different locations in July.
To avert a widespread outbreak, aid groups are preparing to vaccinate more than 600,000 children in the coming weeks. They say the ambitious vaccination plans are impossible, though, without a pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“We are anticipating and preparing for the worst-case scenario of a polio outbreak in the coming weeks or month,” Francis Hughes, the Gaza Response Director at CARE International, told reporters.
The World Health Organization and Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, said in a joint statement on Friday that, at a minimum, a seven day pause is needed to carry out a mass vaccination plan.