Head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed deep concern about the situation and said the newborn from Deir Al Balah had paralysis in his lower left leg but was now in stable condition.
In an online post, Tedros added that the UN health agency had confirmed through genome sequencing that the girl’s infection was linked to the type 2 poliovirus variant, which was detected in environmental samples collected in June from wastewater in Gaza.
High risk of spreading
Given the high risk of polio spreading in Gaza and the region, Palestinian health authorities, together with WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF“is working to roll out two rounds of polio vaccination in the coming weeks to stop transmission.”
United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWAThe organization’s medical team will support vaccine delivery to clinics and mobile health teams, in partnership with WHO and UNICEF, it added.
UNRWA is the largest aid agency in the Gaza Strip and remains a major actor in the health sector, providing health services in 10 primary health centers and up to 100 mobile health posts.
The development comes as the top UN aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory warned that mass displacement in Gaza was “suffocating (people’s) survival” and further severely limiting aid operations.
In August alone, Israeli forces “issued 12 evacuation orders, forcing nearly 250,000 people to move again”, speak Muhannad Hadi, Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Run into danger
“If the evacuation orders were intended to protect civilians, they are actually leading to the exact opposite,” he stressed. “They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry, into an increasingly shrinking area that is overcrowded, polluted, with limited services and – like the rest of Gaza – unsafe.”
Due to constant uprooting, people are also unable to access services “essential to their survival.”including medical facilities, shelters, water wells and humanitarian aid,” Mr. Hadi continued.
