MORE THAN 560,000 children aged under ten in Gaza have been vaccinated against polio during the first round of an emergency campaign, nearly a month after the first case of the disease in the region in 25 years was recorded.
It comes amidst a resurgence of the virus due to Israel’s military offensive in the region, which has seen 2.4 million residents forced to flee their homes and take refuge elsewhere, often in cramped and unsanitary conditions.
In July, the World Health Organisation warned that the polio virus was detected in wastewater samples in Gaza, and the Israeli military began to vaccinate its soldiers operating in Gaza as a result.
Last month, the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years was recorded as a ten-month-old baby was paralysed due to the disease.
It prompted a massive vaccination effort targeting at least 90% of children under ten, which began on 1 September and was aided by localised “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.
The first phase of the campaign, which first …