Polio vaccine campaign in Gaza postponed due to ‘escalating violence’

The second round of a polio vaccination campaign was paused in Gaza due to “escalating violence, intense bombardment, mass displacement orders, and lack of assured humanitarian pauses,” international organisations including the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF said in a statement with the Palestinian health ministry.

There are still more than 119,000 children in northern Gaza that they had aimed to vaccinate as part of the second round of an emergency campaign that began last week, according to the statement.

The international agencies said, however, that ongoing attacks made it “impossible” for families to bring children for vaccination.

The unit of Israel’s defence ministry responsible for policy towards the Palestinian territories (COGAT) said in a social media post on X that “the second round of the vaccination campaign against polio was completed in southern Gaza yesterday”.

They added that the campaign in northern Gaza would “will begin in the coming days,” after the WHO statement was released.

Polio vaccination in Gaza

The highly infectious virus was found in sewage samples and resulted in the paralysis of a 10-month-old Palestinian baby in July, prompting the emergency vaccine campaign.

The first round of the campaign was carried out at the beginning of September and the next round was meant to provide the second dose of the oral vaccine.

At least two doses of the vaccine are necessary to stop transmission of the virus and at least 90 per cent of children need to be vaccinated to prevent it from spreading.

More than 442,000 children under the age of 10 have been vaccinated since the second round began on October 14.

Delaying the second dose of the vaccine “reduces the impact of two closely spaced rounds on concurrently boosting the immunity of all children and interrupting poliovirus transmission,” according to the statement posted by WHO.

“Having a significant number of children miss out on their second vaccine dose will seriously jeopardise efforts to stop the transmission of poliovirus in Gaza,” WHO and UNICEF said.