Walid Abdel Rahman and Hani Abdel Baqi (Gaza, Geneva)
The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said yesterday that “the best vaccine that can be given to children in the Gaza Strip is to bring peace to the region.” Ghebreyesus explained that in cooperation between the Palestinian Ministry of Health, UNICEF and UNRWA, a campaign has begun to vaccinate more than 640,000 children under the age of ten in the Gaza Strip with the polio vaccine.
Yesterday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health launched the first phase of the polio vaccination campaign in a number of centers within the temporary humanitarian truce areas in the Gaza Strip, under the supervision of local and international organizations.
In addition, the people of Gaza expressed their deep gratitude to the UAE and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, may God protect him, for His Highness’s contribution of $5 million to the Polio Eradication Initiative to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza, stressing that the UAE always stands by the Palestinian people, especially in light of the war and aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, the vaccination point official at the Nuseirat Health Center, Mahmoud Hamida, said: “The center has started a campaign to vaccinate children from one day old to 10 years old, especially in light of the catastrophic situation and the ongoing war on the Strip.” He also confirmed the safety of the vaccination and its complete lack of any harm or side effects, noting that the United Nations has sent doses of oral vaccination drops.
For his part, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that the first phase of polio vaccination, which began in the central Gaza Strip, aims to reach more than 600,000 children in the coming days, calling on the parties to the conflict to respect the temporary truce periods in the region to make the campaign a success, and a permanent ceasefire.
The day before yesterday, the health authorities in the Gaza Strip announced their intention to begin a polio vaccination campaign two days after Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary humanitarian truce to allow the necessary vaccinations to be carried out.
Health authorities recorded the first case of polio in a ten-month-old child in the Deir al-Balah Governorate, in the central Gaza Strip, after an absence of more than 25 years of monitoring cases in Gaza, following the discovery of the virus in sewage water samples at the end of last June in the Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah Governorates.
The campaign, which targets children under 10 years old, began in Deir al-Balah Governorate and will continue for 4 days before moving to Khan Yunis on the 5th of this month and continuing until the 8th, and then to Gaza and the North Governorate and ending on September 12th.
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