WHO alerts on Polio risk in Gaza 25 years after eradication
Palestinians inspect the site of Israeli strikes on houses in Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, November 14, 2023. (Reuters Photo)
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday expressed “extreme” concern over a mass outbreak of polio in Gaza following the recent detection of poliovirus in sewage.
“I’m extremely worried about an outbreak that could be happening in Gaza,” Ayadil Saparbekov, the team lead for health emergencies at WHO in the occupied Palestinian territory, told a U.N. press briefing in Geneva via video link from Gaza.
Saparbekov stressed that he is worried not only about a polio outbreak but also about different outbreaks of infectious diseases that may happen in Gaza.
He said no human cases have been confirmed since circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 traces were found in environmental samples collected from Gaza sewage.
To identify any possible human case, WHO and UNICEF will bring up to 50 human sample kits to Gaza in the next rotation of their team on Thursday, he noted.
The samples will then be sent to a lab in Jordan for testing.
“With the crippled health system, lack of water and sanitation, as well as lack of access of the population to the health services, specifically primary health care services, this is going to be a terrible situation that we may face in Gaza,” he said, and warned: “We may have more people dying of different communicable diseases than from the injury-related diseases, conditions.”
WHO has reported poliovirus (variant 2) in at least six wastewater samples in Gaza. The samples were collected from two different locations: Khan Younis in the south and Deir al Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
Dr. Hanan H. Balkhy, Deputy Director-General for Antimicrobial Resistance at the World Health Organization, expressed grave concern about X detecting the poliovirus type 2 variant in Gaza’s sewage.
She highlighted that polio can lead to paralysis and death, especially among unvaccinated children.
Balkhy noted that before the conflict, Gaza had a 99% vaccination rate, and now, over 25 years after the eradication of wild poliovirus in Gaza, the situation creates an ideal environment for the re-emergence and spread of diseases like polio.
Medical evacuations to Spain
Saparbekov said 16 children, evacuated from Gaza to Egypt, will be transferred to Spain, along with 25 companions, on Thursday.
He said that WHO, in collaboration with the European Commission Emergency Response Coordination Center and the Spanish government, is facilitating this medical transfer.
Noting that there were 13 injured minors, one cancer patient, and two with chronic heart disease, he thanked the government of Spain for their generosity.
