An unvaccinated 10-month-old child was diagnosed with polio in the southern Gaza city of Deir Al Balah — in what is considered the first case of the virus in the war-torn enclave, the Palestinian health officials announced.
Doctors suspected that the newborn exhibited symptoms identical to those of polio. Tests conducted in Amman confirmed that the newborn contracted a strain of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV), the health ministry said in a statement published by the Palestinian News and Information Agency (Wafa).
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In the same advisory, the ministry said a polio vaccination campaign will be carried out in the next few days targeting children under 10 years old.
Palestine has secured 1.2 million type 2 polio vaccine doses in coordination with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and work is underway to secure 400,000 doses, it added.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres called for humanitarian pauses to make way for a polio vaccine campaign after the virus was detected in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Speaking at a Press conference in New York, Guterres appealed to all parties to provide concrete assurances of a humanitarian pause right away, reiterating that “the ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.
“A polio pause is a must. It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” he said.