Middle East

Israel-Gaza war: Warnings over polio as virus circulates in enclave for first time in 25 years

Ten-month-old baby in Gaza is paralysed by type 2 polio virus as UN agencies appeal for urgent vaccinations of every baby

Israel-Hamas war: Palestinians line up to fill containers with water at a makeshift camp in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. Photograph: EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images
Fri Aug 23 2024 - 11:49

A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday, with UN agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby.

The type 2 virus, while not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.

UN agencies have called for Israel and Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause in their 10-month-old war to allow vaccination campaigns to proceed in the territory.

“Polio does not distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli children,” the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Friday in a post on X. “Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children,” Philippe Lazzarini added.

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The baby, who has lost movement in his lower left leg, is currently in stable condition, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

The WHO has announced that two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are set to begin in late August and September 2024 across the densely populated Gaza Strip.

With its health services widely damaged or destroyed by fighting, and raw sewage spreading amid a breakdown in sanitation infrastructure, Gaza’s population is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of disease.

Gaza’s health ministry first reported the polio case in the unvaccinated 10-month-old baby a week ago in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, an often-embattled area in the war.

Rights groups on Thursday expressed renewed concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza after Israel’s latest evacuation orders in parts of the overcrowded central city of Deir al-Balah.

“The news of polio in Gaza should be an alarm bell that more infectious diseases are on the way,” Dr Jude Senkugu, health co-ordinator at relief organisation the International Rescue Committee, said in a statement.

“Without clean water, it is nearly impossible to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, as people do not have enough to drink, leaving them with no other choice but to drink contaminated water.”

Meanwhile, international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières warned that shrinking living spaces would cause diseases to spread faster.

Elsewhere, Israeli negotiators arrived in Cairo, for another round of talks aimed at achieving a ceasefire in the war.

The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, has arrived in the Egyptian capital with his team, Israeli officials said. US president Joe Biden’s main envoy for Middle East, Brett McGurk, is also there, according to the US government.

The talks are set to begin on Sunday, though that could change, an Israeli official said. Before then, Mr Barnea will hold discussions with Egyptian authorities about the war and Israeli forces controlling Gaza’s border with Egypt, the official said.

It’s also unclear if Iran-backed Hamas will send representatives. It did not send officials for negotiations in Qatar last week and was instead briefed by mediators.

The Cairo round will be the latest in a months-long effort to pause or end the war that followed Hamas’s October 7th attack on southern Israel, during which the group killed 1,200 people and took around 240 hostage.

Israel’s subsequent air-and-ground offensive on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. – Agencies