Polio in Gaza, 25 thousand vials of vaccine arrived from the United Nations

They will make it possible to vaccinate over a million people, especially children, for whom polio can be lethal.But to conduct a vaccination campaign, an immediate ceasefire is needed, the UN insists.

On Sunday the health workers present in the Gaza Strip have received the first batch of polio vaccines sent by the United Nations, essential for carrying out a vaccination campaign that promises to be desperate, because it is being conducted under bombardment by the Israeli army.It's about 25 thousand vials containing 1.2 million doses of vaccine which will be stored in a facility managed by Unicef, the UN agency for children.Thanks to the first shipment of vaccines, health workers still present in the Strip will be able to begin a mass immunization campaign among children, as announced by the Gaza Ministry of Health on Sunday evening.The ministry added that it hopes to vaccinate 640,000 children up to 10 years old, who will be given two doses each.Others are expected to arrive in the next few days 365 thousand doses.

The polio alarm amidst the bombings

The alarm about a potential epidemic in the Gaza Strip was raised only a few days ago, when United Nations officials confirmed the first case of polio in 25 years, found in a 10-month-old child who was partially paralyzed in one leg.Subsequently, two more suspected cases were detected, but they appear to be asymptomatic.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the symptoms of the disease, which mainly affects children under five years of age, can include fever, vomiting and stiffness of the limbs.In severe cases, polio can lead to permanent partial or total paralysis of the infected person.It seems that the price is especially high for very young children - under the age of 5 - for whom it can prove fatal.

“The only vaccine against polio is peace”

Fear of the onset of the disease had been spreading for several months, since traces of type 2 poliovirus had been detected in samples collected from wastewater in the area in June.This highly infectious virus actually contaminates water.After eleven months of war, Gaza's water supply systems are to the point of collapse, and for this reason even safe access to water is highly compromised.

At a press conference last week, the United Nations called for a week-long pause in its fight to carry out a polio vaccination campaign for more than 640,000 children under the age of 10.In particular, Secretary General António Guterres stated that "the only vaccine against polio in the Gaza Strip is peace", making it clear that it will be impossible to conduct a vaccination campaign without first reaching a ceasefire.