FN Secretary-General António Guterres has recently called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict in Gaza to enable a polio vaccination campaign, following the discovery of the virus in the besieged area. “It is impossible to carry out a polio vaccination campaign while the war rages on,” Guterres stated to reporters at the United Nations headquarters in New York. He urged the warring parties to immediately guarantee humanitarian pauses, warning that it would require a massive, coordinated, and urgent effort to prevent and contain the spread of polio in Gaza. “Let us be clear: the ultimate vaccine against polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” he said. “But in any case, a polio pause is a must.”
The UN chief added that the organization is ready to launch a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza for children under 10 years old, but he emphasized that “the challenges are enormous.” Guterres noted that vaccination coverage of at least 95 percent must be achieved in each of the two campaign rounds to prevent the spread of polio and reduce its resurgence, given the current situation in Gaza. The vaccination campaign, planned to occur in two rounds, is expected to be launched at the end of August and September this year across the Gaza Strip, according to UNICEF.
Hamas, the governing entity in Gaza, has expressed support for the UN’s request for a humanitarian pause to vaccinate children against polio. “Hamas also demands the delivery of medicine and food to more than two million Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip,” said Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the group’s political bureau. In July, Gaza’s Ministry of Health declared a polio epidemic in the area, blaming the spread of the virus on Israel’s military offensive. The Israeli military has stated that soldiers have been vaccinated against the disease.
Polio has been detected in wastewater in the Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates of Gaza. Dr. Hamid Jafari, a polio specialist from the World Health Organization (WHO), mentioned earlier this month that the population in Gaza is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks due to a lack of health services. Israel has restricted access for humanitarian organizations to Gaza, and Israeli forces have bombed aid convoys, resulting in the deaths of many aid workers.
Moreover, the Israeli offensive has rendered most of Gaza’s hospitals non-functional, and ongoing displacements of Palestinians who continue to face evacuation orders from the Israeli military make it difficult to locate and reach unvaccinated children. Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensivist, warned that the presence of the virus in wastewater is a “ticking bomb.”
“Normally, if you have a case of polio, you would isolate them, ensure they use a toilet that no one else uses, and make sure they do not have close contact with others, but that is impossible,” she stated. “Currently, everyone is gathered in refugee camps without vaccines for at least nine months, including children who would otherwise have been vaccinated against polio.”
Poliomyelitis, which primarily spreads through the oral-fecal route, is a highly contagious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Children under five years old are most at risk, especially infants under two, as routine vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by ten months of conflict. “We need a ceasefire, even a temporary ceasefire, to effectively carry out these campaigns,” said Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director, to journalists earlier this month. “Otherwise, there is a risk that the virus will spread further, including across borders,” she added.