A well being official mentioned a polio vaccination marketing campaign started in Gaza on Saturday, whereas an assist employee mentioned a large-scale rollout would start on Sunday, coinciding with a “humanitarian pause” agreed by Israel and Hamas.
The vaccination drive was introduced after Gaza recorded its first polio case in 1 / 4 of a century earlier this month.
Native well being officers together with the UN and NGOs “are beginning right this moment the polio vaccination marketing campaign”, Moussa Abed, director of main well being care on the well being ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, informed AFP on Saturday.
An unspecified variety of youngsters acquired the primary dose of the vaccination, which includes two doses and is run orally, at Nasser Hospital within the southern metropolis of Khan Yunis.
Amongst them was Amal Shaheen’s three-year-old daughter, who was already within the hospital being handled for pneumonia.
“Now we have been within the hospital for 17 days… I spend all my days worrying about her,” Shaheen mentioned.
“At this time she was vaccinated in opposition to polio to guard her, like all the kids within the hospital have been vaccinated.”
The World Well being Group (WHO) mentioned on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a collection of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to facilitate vaccinations, although officers had earlier mentioned the marketing campaign was anticipated to begin on Sunday.
A world assist employee informed AFP that Palestinian authorities had organised a launch occasion on Saturday and that the vaccination marketing campaign was nonetheless anticipated to start in full on Sunday.
After starting in central Gaza, vaccines are set to be administered in southern Gaza after which in northern Gaza.
The marketing campaign goals to cowl greater than 640,000 youngsters underneath 10 years outdated.
Michael Ryan, WHO deputy director-general, informed the UN Safety Council this week that 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine had been delivered in Gaza, with one other 400,000 nonetheless to reach
The Ramallah-based Palestinian well being ministry mentioned earlier this month that assessments in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child from central Gaza.
Poliovirus is very infectious and most frequently unfold by way of sewage and contaminated water — an more and more widespread downside in Gaza because the Israel-Hamas conflict drags on.
The illness primarily impacts youngsters underneath the age of 5. It may trigger deformities and paralysis and is doubtlessly deadly.
– ‘100% secure’ –
Bakr Deeb informed AFP on Saturday that he introduced his three youngsters — all underneath 10 — to a vaccination level on Saturday regardless of some preliminary doubts about its security.
“I used to be hesitant at first and really afraid of the protection of this vaccination,” he mentioned.
“After the assurances of its security, and with all of the households going to the vaccination factors, I made a decision to go along with my youngsters as nicely, to guard them.”
Abed, the well being official, harassed on Saturday that the vaccine was “100% secure”.
The conflict in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented assault on southern Israel on October 7 which resulted within the deaths of 1,199 individuals, principally civilians, based on an AFP tally based mostly on Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory navy marketing campaign has killed at the least 40,691 individuals in Gaza, based on the territory’s well being ministry. The UN rights workplace says many of the lifeless are girls and youngsters.
Incessant Israeli bombardment has additionally brought on a significant humanitarian disaster and devastated the well being system.
