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Ginebra – The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that it would send 1.2 million polio vaccines to Gaza, aiming to immunize 600,000 children under the age of eight, after a variant of the polio virus was discovered in the war-torn Palestinian territory.
“The detection of polio in Gaza’s wastewater is a clear sign that the virus is circulating in communities, putting unvaccinated children at risk,” the organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned at a news conference.
However, Tedros stressed that to protect Gaza’s children from the disease, the organization’s staff in Gaza need “absolute freedom of movement,” which means a ceasefire or at least “a few days of calm.”
Andrea King, WHO technical expert for the occupied Palestinian territory, added: “Silence is needed before and during vaccination to ensure the safety of health workers as well as the population during vaccination.”
In response, he said WHO and UNICEF were working with the Gaza Ministry of Health to manage the logistics.
Likewise, negotiations are ongoing with Israeli authorities regarding permission for the safe entry of vaccines into Gaza, as well as the security of the entire operation.
“If everything goes well and they arrive on time, the first round of vaccination campaign will start on August 17,” he said. JS
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