Geneva (Agencies)
The polio vaccination campaign in Gaza has reached the northern areas of the Strip, the World Health Organization announced yesterday, despite the “obstruction” of a convoy carrying experts and fuel.
After the first case of polio was detected in Gaza in 25 years, a massive vaccination campaign began on September 1 thanks to a “humanitarian truce” that included 640,000 children under the age of ten.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters that after the central and southern Gaza Strip, the campaign will move to the north “from September 10 to 12. The goal is to prevent the spread of poliovirus type 2, and children should receive two doses of the nOPV2 vaccine, four weeks apart.”
Maher Shamiya, Deputy Minister of Health in the Gaza Strip, said: “230 teams are working to distribute vaccines, and there is a large participation from families wishing to vaccinate their children.”
In August, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced the first case of polio in 25 years in the Gaza Strip, which is witnessing a war between Israel and Hamas, which led to a humanitarian disaster.
The WHO spokesman said that vaccines, refrigeration equipment and other supplies were delivered to northern Gaza yesterday, but the movement of a WHO mission carrying fuel for hospitals, polio vaccination campaign vehicles and experts responsible for supervising them was hindered.
He explained that the mission waited for 3 hours to get the Israeli green light, then five hours at the waiting point, after which we were forced to cancel the mission.
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