UN calls for Gaza truce to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio

Two major UN agencies, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef, demanded on Friday "seven-day humanitarian pauses" in fighting in the Gaza Strip to vaccinate over 640,000 children under 10 against polio in the coming weeks.

Both UN agencies called on all parties to the conflict to implement seven-day humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip to allow for two rounds of polio vaccinations, as stated in a release. The vaccination campaign would occur at the end of August and September.

So far, no infections have been reported in the Palestinian semi-enclave, and no one has fallen ill, but without immediate action, the occurrence of infections is only a matter of time, warned WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the end of July.

In July, Israeli scientists reported in the daily newspaper "Haaretz" the discovery of the virus. They argued that to efficiently carry out the mass vaccination campaign, a truce in the Gaza Strip, where a war is raging between the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas and Israel, is urgently needed. They argued that polio outbreaks have repeatedly erupted during armed conflicts and crises, even in countries where the disease has been practically eliminated thanks to vaccines.

Currently, the children most vulnerable to infection are those in both the Gaza Strip and Israel who have not yet been vaccinated.

Polio, also known as Heine-Medin disease or acute anterior poliomyelitis, is caused by a virus transmitted via the faecal-oral route and can lead to paralysis, disability, or death. In the 1950s and 60s, mass vaccinations with new vaccines began in industrialised countries. However, vaccines were not implemented on a global scale until the 1970s.