Polio epidemic declared in Gaza as Israel continues devastating war

Gaza (Quds News Network)- Gaza’s health ministry has declared a polio epidemic across the coastal enclave on Monday, blaming Israel’s ongoing genocide war for the spread of the deadly virus.

The ministry said in a statement that the situation “poses a health threat to the residents of Gaza and neighboring countries” – the latest sign of a worsening public health emergency caused by Israel’s genocide war since October.

The ministry called the epidemic a “setback” to the global polio eradication programme, urging for an “immediate intervention to end the [Israeli] aggression and find radical solutions” to lack of potable water and personal hygiene, damaged sewage networks and removal of tonnes of rubbish and solid waste.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini also warned a few days ago that the spread of polio in Gaza, which is drowning in hundreds of thousands of tonnes of human waste and rubble from the Israeli war, may affect other countries unless a ceasefire enables vaccinations to resume.

“Diseases don’t differentiate between people. They don’t know borders nor do they need a visa or permit to travel,” Lazzarini wrote in X.

“This is another serious development in the never ending journey of misery. Polio emerges due to a crumbling health system, lack of clean water + hygiene material, overcrowded shelters & very poor sanitation,” he added.

Polio has been detected in samples of sewage water in the Gaza Strip, placing thousands of Palestinians at risk of contracting the highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health said it had detected “component poliovirus type 2” in coordination with UNICEF, the United Nations children’s agency.

“Detecting the virus that causes polio in wastewater heralds a real health disaster and exposes thousands of residents to the risk of contracting polio,” it said in a statement two weeks ago.

The virus could be found in sewage “that collects and flows between the tents of the displaced”, said the ministry. Already scarce supplies of drinking water in the densely populated Strip are at risk of being contaminated by the virus.

Earlier, the Israeli Ministry of Health said it had evidence of the “component poliovirus type 2”, found in sewage samples taken inside the Strip.
It instructed the Israeli army to vaccinate all troops in the Gaza Strip as well as those who are about to enter, and recommended a booster for those already vaccinated.

The World Health Organization also said there was a high risk of the polio virus spreading across the Gaza Strip and beyond its borders due to the dire health and sanitation situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.

Ayadil Saparbekov, team lead for health emergencies at WHO in Gaza and the West Bank said, “There is a high risk of spreading of the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus in Gaza, not only because of the detection but because of the very dire situation with the water sanitation,” adding “It may also spill over internationally, at a very high point.”

On Friday, the WHO said it was sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children from being infected.

Last week, the UN reported that besides the detection of the polio virus, there has been a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza.

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