UN sounds alarm: Gaza ceasefire needs polio vaccine | Live TV TK

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for at least a seven-day ceasefire to allow for the delivery of 1.6 million doses of nOPV2 polio vaccine to the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian health officials have reported the first case of polio in the Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, in an unvaccinated 10-month-old child.

It was the first case of the disease reported in recent years in the Gaza Strip, an enclave that suffers daily from destruction and bombing. Polio can be fatal, mainly affects children under five and is usually spread through contaminated water.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio transmission has never stopped.

“We know how to conduct effective polio vaccination campaigns. Given the massive devastation in Gaza, we need at least 95 percent vaccination coverage in each of the two campaigns to prevent the spread of polio and reduce its incidence,” Guterres said.

In each round of the campaign, the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) together with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and partners will provide two drops of the new oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to more than 640,000 children under the age of 10.

More than 1.6 million doses of nOPV2 to stop the spread of cVDPV2 will be delivered to the Gaza Strip. Vaccination will be carried out by 708 teams in hospitals, field hospitals and health centres in every city in the region. Approximately 2,700 health workers, including mobile teams and community outreach workers, will support the implementation of both rounds of activities.

Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are currently partially functioning, and other medical services have been depleted. According to Oxfam, the Israeli army destroyed all of Gaza’s sewage treatment plants and 70% of its sewage pumps, meaning that many of Gaza’s streets are flooded with water contaminated by raw sewage, a prime environment for the spread of disease. European News.