Continued Israeli bombardment and soaring temperatures are complicating polio vaccination plans in the Gaza Strip, where the first case of polio in 25 years was reported last week amid a significant deterioration in health conditions.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Friday from Ramallah the registration of the first case of polio virus in the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip in a ten-month-old child who had not received a dose of vaccination against the disease.
The World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) say they have detailed plans to vaccinate 640,000 children across Gaza starting at the end of this month.
“It is very difficult to carry out a vaccination campaign of this size under skies full of airstrikes,” said Juliette Touma, director of communications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
There are also restrictions on the entry of aid, including medicine, into the besieged enclave, while high summer temperatures make it even more difficult to carry out the vaccination campaign.
Poliovirus is most often spread through sewage and contaminated water, and is highly contagious. It can cause permanent deformities and paralysis, and can be fatal. It mainly affects children under five years of age.
fragile supply chain
The World Health Organization representative in Gaza, Richard Peeperkorn, says the organization will oversee the master plan for the vaccination campaign, with 2,700 health workers distributed across 708 teams working in every municipality in the Gaza Strip.
UNICEF spokesman Jonathan Crickx says it is responsible for ensuring a supply chain that requires refrigeration to bring in vaccines and distribute them throughout Gaza.
On Wednesday, the necessary tools for maintaining refrigeration, including refrigerators, arrived at Tel Aviv airport.
Krix told Agence France-Presse on Thursday that the vaccines, which were supposed to begin arriving today at Tel Aviv airport, were delayed and will arrive in Israel on Sunday, and will enter Gaza on the same day through the Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border. The vaccines are oral drops, not injections.
About 1.6 million doses have been prepared to provide two doses for each of Gaza’s 640,000 children, with surplus doses to cover what may be lost due to the heat.
“Each box has a code that reacts to temperature changes,” the UNICEF spokesperson says, showing when the doses are no longer usable.
Central issue
Delivering aid and supplies through Israeli-controlled entry points is a central issue for humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, which complain of restrictions imposed by the Jewish state, including constantly changing lists of permitted items and administrative hurdles that lead to delays.
Consequently, the shortage of everything in the Gaza Strip is increasing, from fuel and medical equipment to food.
Israel denies causing the obstacles, and blames humanitarian organizations for lacking the capacity to distribute the goods it allows into Gaza.
According to Touma, once the vaccines arrive in Gaza, they will be kept in the cold chain facility, a UN storage space in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, before the vaccination campaign begins on August 31.
“The vaccines will be distributed via refrigerated trucks if we can find any, otherwise via cold boxes” filled with ice packs, Krix explains, noting that they will go to Ministry of Health facilities, UNRWA shelters and partners.
No guarantee of access to children
The health system in Gaza has been devastated by the war that has been going on for more than ten months. “Only 16 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are functioning, and only partially,” Krix explains.
With the only power plant shut down and electricity supplies from Israel cut off, health facilities rely heavily on generators while fuel is very scarce.
According to Krix, only 11 health facilities have been identified that are able to maintain the cold chain. But even if vaccines are successfully transported and distributed, there is no guarantee that people will be able to access them safely.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a seven-day truce to allow children to be vaccinated. “Without a safe environment for the vaccination campaign, we will not be able to reach 95 percent of children under 10,” said Musa Abed, director of primary health care at the Ministry of Health in Gaza, the campaign’s target.
Abed says many Gazans live in temporary camps or in UNRWA schools that are now being used as shelters, making them difficult to access.
Israeli airstrikes, shelling and ground operations in the Gaza Strip since last October have killed at least 40,223 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says most of those killed are women and children.
“The return of polio to a place where it had been eradicated is a true reflection of reality,” says Touma, who worked on the polio response team during the wars in both Syria and Iraq.
In response to a question from Agence France-Presse, COGAT, the body responsible for managing civil affairs in the Palestinian territories and affiliated with the Israeli Defense Ministry, said that “a joint effort will be made with the international community,” promising “full cooperation.”