By Ayomide Otitoju
Two rounds of a critical polio vaccination campaign are scheduled to launch across the Gaza Strip in late August and September 2024, aimed at preventing the spread of the circulating variant type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2).
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have jointly urged all parties involved in the ongoing conflict to implement seven-day humanitarian pauses in the Gaza Strip. These pauses are essential to allow the vaccination campaigns to proceed safely, enabling children and families to access health facilities and allowing community outreach workers to reach those unable to travel for polio vaccination. Without these humanitarian pauses, the campaign’s delivery will be impossible.
During each round of the campaign, the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH), in partnership with WHO, UNICEF, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and other partners, plans to administer two drops of the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to over 640,000 children under ten years of age.
The urgency of this campaign follows the detection of the poliovirus in environmental samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in July 2024. Alarmingly, three children with suspected acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), a common symptom of polio, have been reported in the Gaza Strip. Their stool samples have been sent to the Jordan National Polio Laboratory for testing.
To support this effort, over 1.6 million doses of nOPV2, specifically designed to halt cVDPV2 transmission, will be delivered to the Gaza Strip. The vaccines and necessary cold chain equipment are expected to transit through Ben Gurion Airport and arrive in the Gaza Strip by the end of August. Ensuring the smooth and timely transport and clearance of these supplies is crucial for the campaign’s success.
Detailed plans have been finalized to mobilize 708 vaccination teams across hospitals, field hospitals, and primary healthcare centers in each municipality of the Gaza Strip. Approximately 2,700 health workers, including mobile teams and community outreach workers, will be engaged in administering the vaccines and raising awareness to mitigate the risk of polio infection.
Achieving at least 95% vaccination coverage in each round is critical to preventing the spread of polio and minimizing the risk of its resurgence, particularly given the severely disrupted health, water, and sanitation systems in the Gaza Strip.
The success of the campaign also depends on the availability of sufficient cash, fuel, and functional telecommunication networks to effectively reach communities with information about the vaccination effort.
Efforts are also underway to strengthen and expand poliovirus surveillance and routine immunization.
The Gaza Strip has been polio-free for the past 25 years, but the reemergence of the virus, which the humanitarian community has been warning about for the last ten months, poses a new threat to children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries. A ceasefire remains the only viable path to ensuring public health security in the region.
