The World Health Organization says it has successfully vaccinated more than 187,000 children under 10 years of age in Gaza for polio during the first phase of a campaign to combat the deadly disease.
The vaccinations were conducted from Sept. 1-3 after Israel and Hamas agreed to a series of brief pauses in fighting in Gaza to allow for the vaccination of children against the disease, which was detected in sewage in June.
The campaign comes after a 10-month-old unvaccinated child became the first confirmed human case of polio in Gaza in 25 years. The boy is now paralyzed in his left leg.
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“It has been extremely encouraging to see thousands of children being able to access polio vaccines, with the support of their resilient families and courageous health workers, despite the deplorable conditions they have braved over the last 11 months," WHO representative Dr. Richard Peeperkorn said in a statement. "All parties respected the humanitarian pause and we hope to see this positive momentum continue."
With open sewage on the streets of Gaza amid an ongoing humanitarian crisis, there's fears that unvaccinated children are at a greater risk of contracting polio.
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"You find it in the wastewater, and when it causes polio, it only causes paralysis in about 1 of every 200 people," said Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "So you can assume that that strain is circulating and it's causing a much greater incidence of infection."
The WHO says preparations are already underway to begin the next phase of the vaccination campaign, which will be conducted from Sept. 5-8 targeting an estimated 340,000 children under 10 years of age. Then a final phase of vaccinations is slated to take place from Sept. 9-11, targeting another 150,000 kids.