GENEVA: The World Health Organization has that a mass polio vaccination campaign would resume in Gaza on Saturday, targeting nearly 600,000 children, after recent detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in the war-hit Palestinian territory.
The emergency polio outbreak response in the Gaza Strip is continuing, with a mass vaccination campaign scheduled from 22 to 26 February 2025,” said the UN health agency in a statement on Wednesday.
It added that the novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) will be administered to over 591,000 children under 10 years of age to protect them from polio. This campaign follows the recent detection of poliovirus in wastewater samples in Gaza, signaling ongoing circulation in the environment, and putting children at risk.
It said pockets of individuals with low or no immunity provide the virus an opportunity to continue spreading and potentially cause disease.
The current environment in Gaza, including overcrowding in shelters and severely damaged water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure, which facilitates faecal-oral transmission, creates ideal conditions for the further spread of poliovirus.
Extensive population movement consequent to the current ceasefire is likely to exacerbate the spread of poliovirus infection,” it warned.
It said two previous vaccination rounds in the Gaza Strip were successfully conducted in September and October 2024, reaching over 95% of the target.
The WHO statement said as poliovirus is found to remain in the environment, additional vaccination efforts are needed to reach every child and strengthen population immunity.
The presence of the virus still poses a risk to children with low or no immunity, in Gaza and throughout the region.
In 2024, health workers faced significant challenges accessing certain areas of central, north and south Gaza, which required special coordination to enter during the conflict,” said WHO statement.
It noted that in inaccessible areas such as Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun, where humanitarian pauses for the vaccination campaign were not assured, approximately 7,000 children missed vaccination during the second round. The recent ceasefire means health workers have considerably better access now.
“No additional polio cases have been reported since a ten-month-old child was paralysed in August 2024, but the new environmental samples from Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, collected in December 2024 and January 2025, confirm poliovirus transmission,” it said.
Campaign to reach all children under 10 years
It went on to say the upcoming vaccination campaign aims to reach all children under 10 years of age, including those previously missed, to close immunity gaps and end the outbreak.
The use of the oral polio vaccine will help end this outbreak by preventing the spread of the virus. An additional polio vaccination round is planned to be implemented in April.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health would lead the campaign and implement it with support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and other partners.
“Polio vaccines are safe and there is no maximum number of times a child should be vaccinated. Each dose gives additional protection which is needed during an active polio outbreak,” said the statement by WHO.
