JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - UN agencies have called on the warring sides to implement seven days' humanitarian pause in Gaza for polio vaccination as the threat of the disabling disease is rising fast in the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
Two rounds of a polio vaccination campaign are expected to be launched at the end of August and September across the Gaza Strip to prevent the spread of circulating variant type 2 poliovirus, OR cVDPV2.
'WHO and UNICEF request all parties to the conflict to implement humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip for seven days to allow for two rounds of vaccination campaigns to take place,' the two UN agencies said in a statement. 'These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination. Without the humanitarian pauses, the delivery of the campaign will not be possible.'
During each round of the campaign, the Palestinian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and partners, will provide two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 to more than 640000 children less than ten years of age.
WHO said the poliovirus was detected in July environmental samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Three children presenting with suspected acute flaccid paralysis, a common symptom of polio, have since been reported in the Gaza Strip.
More than 1.6 million doses of nOPV2 will be delivered to the Gaza Strip. The deliveries of the vaccines and the cold chain equipment are expected to transit through Israel's Ben Gurion Airport before arriving in the Gaza Strip by the end of August. WHO warned that it is essential that the transport of the vaccines and cold chain is facilitated at every step of the journey to ensure their timely reception, clearance and ultimately delivery in time for the campaign.
The Gaza Strip has been polio-free for the last 25 years. Its reemergence represents yet another threat to the children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries.
Most of Gaza's two million-strong population is internally displaced, and thousands of them are deprived of food, medical supplies and clean water.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Israel at what he described as 'probably the best, maybe the last opportunity' to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
Blinken made his comments during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday during his ninth trip to the region since the war began in October..
'This is my ninth visit since October 7, to Israel, to the Middle East, and this is a decisive moment, probably the best, maybe the last opportunity to get the hostages home, to get a ceasefire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security,' he said during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday.
He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later in the day.
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