Doctors in war-torn Gaza have detected a case of polio for the first time in 25 years, health officials said, as international aid bodies call for a pause in the conflict for make way for a vaccination drive.
Traces of poliovirus were found in a 10-month-old child in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, the health ministry said in a statement late Friday, adding that the baby had not received any polio jabs.
Previously, UNICEF said poliovirus was detected in environmental samples from Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in July, with stool samples of three children being sent to a lab in Jordan for testing.
Polio is a highly contagious disease that mainly affects children under the age of 5. It targets the nervous system and can cause paralysis and death in extreme cases.
The resurgence of the virus – eliminated in most of the developed world – highlights the struggles facing Gaza’s two million residents, who have lived under Israeli bombardment since October last year. Many people in the enclave are deprived of food, medical supplies and clean water, with up to 90% of the population internally displaced.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war on Hamas following the group’s October 7 attack, according to officials. The Hamas attack killed more than 1,200 Israelis, with 250 taken hostage, according to the Israeli government.
The health ministry said it will work with UNICEF to vaccinate children under 10 years old in Gaza, adding that more than a million doses are available.
Two rounds of vaccination are expected to be launched this month and next across Gaza, UNICEF said in a news release Friday, adding that it will target more than 640,000 children.
But a pause in hostilities is needed to make way for an effective polio vaccination campaign, it said, alongside the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and the World Health Organization, all calling for a halt to the fighting.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called the proposal “a must,” noting the “ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
International mediators are making an urgent push for Israel and Hamas to reach a broader ceasefire and hostage deal next week, after high-stakes negotiations in Qatar saw them put a fresh proposal to the warring parties.
Gaza has been polio-free for the last 25 years, UNICEF said.
“Its reemergence, which the humanitarian community has warned about for the last ten months, represents yet another threat to the children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries,” the UN body added, stressing the importance of a ceasefire.
Hamas welcomed the call from the UN agencies on Friday for a seven-day “polio pause.”
But the health ministry in Gaza warned in a statement on Friday that a vaccination campaign “will not be enough without a radical solution to the problems of sanitation and accumulation of waste among the tents for the displaced.”
Last week, Palestinian Minister of Health Dr. Majed Abu Ramadan warned that Israel’s bombardment had destroyed 80% of the healthcare infrastructure in Gaza.
Most hospitals are out of service and those that have remained operational are working only partially “due to direct damage and the loss of qualified medical staff” due to displacement, according to the minister.
“We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe by all indications and evidence,” he said.
Eyad Kourdi, Hira Humayun, Sarah Dean and Ibrahim Dahman contributed to this report.