Gaza at ‘high risk’ of polio outbreak – WHO
- July 24, 2024
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The World Health Organization said on Tuesday there was a high risk that Polio virus spreads across Gaza Strip and beyond due to the grave health and sanitation
The World Health Organization said on Tuesday there was a high risk that Polio virus spreads across Gaza Strip and beyond due to the grave health and sanitation situation in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Ayadil Saparbekov, WHO Health Emergencies Team Leader in Gaza and the West Bank, reported that circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 had been isolated in environmental samples of Gaza wastewater.
“There is a high risk of spread of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in the Gaza Strip, not only as a result of detection, but due to the serious situation with water supply and sewerage“WHO informed journalists in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.
«This may also extend to the international level.at a very high level.”
Photo: Reuters
Saparbekov said that WHO and UNICEF staff were expected to arrive in Gaza on Thursday to pick up human stool samples as part of the risk assessment associated with the detection of the virus.
He said the assessment, which he expected to be completed by the end of the week, would allow health authorities to make recommendations “including on the need for a mass vaccination campaign, as well as what type of vaccine should be used and what its effectiveness is” in the age group “of the population that should be vaccinated”.
Polio, transmitted primarily by the feco-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can penetrate the nervous system and cause paralysis. Mainly affects children under 5 years of age.
The Israeli military said Sunday it would begin offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after traces of the contagious polio virus were found in samples tested in areas of the coastal enclave.
Photo: Reuters
The military also said that, with the cooperation of international teams, enough vaccines had been delivered to cover more than a million people in Gaza, which has a total population of about 2.3 million.
Without adequate health services, Gazans are particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks, public health officials and aid groups say.
“I am extremely concerned about the outbreak of the disease in the Gaza Strip. And it is not only polio, but various outbreaks of infectious diseases,” Saparbekov said.
Reuters
Source: Aristegui Noticias
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