The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have called “humanitarian pauses” in the Gaza Strip for seven days from late August to September to begin two rounds of a territory-wide polio vaccination campaign to prevent the spread of the circulating poliovirus variant type 2 (cVDPV2).

These pauses in hostilities will allow children and families to reach health centres safely and allow outreach workers on the ground to reach children who have been unable to access health centres for polio vaccination. “Without humanitarian pauses, it will be impossible to carry out the campaign.“, they assured.

During each round of the campaign, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and other partners, administered two drops the new oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to more than 640,000 children under ten years of age.

Poliovirus was detected in July 2024 in environmental samples in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Alarmingly, three cases of children suspected of committing suicide have been reported in the Gaza Strip since then. acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), a common symptom of polio. Their stool samples were sent to Jordan’s National Polio Laboratory for analysis.

More than 1.6 million doses of nOPV2, which is used to stop the transmission of cVDPV2, will be delivered to the Gaza Strip. The shipments of vaccines and cold chain equipment were expected to pass through Ben Gurion Airport before arriving in Gaza at the end of August. “It is critical that vaccine transport and cold chain are facilitated at every stage of the journey to ensure they are received, dispatched and ultimately delivered in time for the campaign,” the UN health agency said.

Detailed plans have been completed to help vaccinators and social mobilizers reach eligible children across the Gaza Strip.. 708 teams will carry out vaccinations. including hospitals, field hospitals and primary health care centres in every municipality in the Gaza Strip.

Around 2,700 health workers, including mobile teams and outreach workers, will support both rounds of the campaign, in addition to awareness-raising activities to reduce the risk of polio infection.

To prevent the spread of polio and reduce the risk of its relapse, vaccination coverage of at least 95 percent is required in each round of the campaign, given serious disruptions to health, water and sanitation systems in the Gaza Strip.

Other requirements for the success of the campaign included sufficient funds, fuel, and functional telecommunications networks to reach the population with information about the campaign. Additional efforts were also made to strengthen and expand poliovirus surveillance and routine immunization.