Two major UN agencies, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, today called for a “ceasefire for humanitarian reasons for 7 days”. in the fighting in the Gaza Strip so that more than 640,000 children under the age of 10 will be vaccinated against polio in the coming weeks.
«Two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns should begin in late August and to continue in September 2024 throughout the Gaza Strip to prevent the spread of the currently circulating variant, known as cVDPV2, WHO and UNICEF announced.
The two UN agencies "call on all warring parties to implement humanitarian ceasefires in the Gaza Strip for seven days to allow the two vaccination campaigns to take place".
"Without these “humanitarian ceasefires, the campaign cannot be successful,” they warned.
Each ceasefire must last 7 days, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told AFP.
The polio virus was detected in July in sewage samples collected at the end of June in Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah, WHO and UNICEF recalled.
«In a worrying development, three children with suspected acute flaccid paralysis, a common symptom of polio, have since been reported in the Gaza Strip, they pointed out. Their stool samples were sent for analysis to Jordan's National Polio Laboratory.
The two UN agencies hope the polio vaccination campaigns will reach more than 640,000 children under the age of 10.
More than 1.6 million doses of the nOPV2 vaccine, which is used to stop the transmission of cVDPV2, are to be delivered to the Palestinian enclave.
The vaccines are expected to pass through Ben Gurion Airport before reach the Gaza Strip at the end of August, according to the statement.
The vaccines will then be administered by 708 groups, including hospitals and health centers in every municipality in the Gaza Strip.
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Source: APE-MPE-AFP
