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The United Nations agencies announced that the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza will start on August 31 and will last for seven days. Due to attacks on humanitarian aid workers in recent days, UNRWA and the World Food Fund (WFP) decided to temporarily suspend humanitarian aid activities.
EU High Representative Borrell said in a statement on vaccination: “The EU calls for an immediate halt to humanitarian aid to ensure all children in Gaza are vaccinated against the polio virus. The Gaza Strip has been polio-free for the past 25 years.
Alarmingly, the polio virus was discovered in July and the first case confirmed, also affecting children. “This epidemic must be prevented from emerging and spreading further internationally in a population already weakened by more than a dozen months of conflict and displacement, malnutrition, lack of basic health services and poor sanitation.” He said.
‘All parties must show respect’
Borrell stressed that all parties must cooperate and respect the suspension to allow the vaccination campaign to proceed. “More than 640,000 children under 10 years of age will be reached with two drops of the new oral polio vaccine within the context of two rounds of campaigns expected to be carried out in the Gaza Strip in the coming weeks in partnership with the World Health Organization and UNICEF.
The EU welcomes the delivery of more than 1.2 million doses of oral polio vaccine to Gaza and Israel’s cooperation in delivering vaccines to Gaza and underlines the importance of further collaboration between all parties with WHO, UNRWA and UNICEF on the vaccine rollout. It is crucial that all parties uphold the humanitarian pause so that these emergency operations can be successfully implemented and on time. “Protecting health facilities and staff and ensuring safe access for children and families to vaccination sites is essential to achieving this goal.” He said.
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