Polio Vaccinations Begin in Gaza as Israel Allows Pauses

A polio vaccine campaign for children began in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, weeks after a 10-month-old baby was diagnosed there with the paralyzing disease. 

Health officials called for a large-scale vaccination program because unsanitary conditions after 11 months of war risk causing a major outbreak. Israel has agreed to partial pauses in the fighting to allow for vaccinations. 

The vaccination drive, led by United Nations agencies in collaboration with the Hamas-run health ministry, began in central Gaza. It is set to expand to camps for displaced people in the south in the coming days, with plans to cover northern Gaza next week.

The vaccine being administered is against Type-2 polio, which was declared eradicated in 2015. 

Nidal Ghunim, a preventive health doctor, said that Gaza children are usually vaccinated against Type 1 and Type 3, and to a lesser degree take the oral vaccine for Type 2, which hasn’t been diagnosed in Gaza for 25 years.

The goal is to reach more than 600,000 children, from newborns to 10-year-olds.

“The war caused a severe disruption in the vaccination program, leaving many children and newborns without any form of vaccination” as a lack of clean water and the spread of sewage increase disease risks, Ghunim said in an interview.

Doctors Without Borders said Monday it joined the drive by providing logistical and organizational support at five vaccination centers in central Gaza. UNICEF said that more than 85,000 children were inoculated on Sunday.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.