Reuters

The newspaper La Jornada
Saturday, August 24, 2024, p. 23

Dubai – A 10-month-old boy in Gaza has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, as United Nations agencies called for urgent vaccination of all babies.

The type 2 virus, although not intrinsically more dangerous than types 1 and 3, is responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low immunization rates.

UN agencies have urged Israel and Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause to allow vaccination campaigns to continue in the territory.

Polio makes no distinction between Palestinian and Israeli children said the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, in a message on X on Friday. Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spreading among children.

The baby, who lost movement in his lower left leg, is in stable condition, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

With health services widely damaged or destroyed by fighting and sewage spilling out amid a collapse in health infrastructure, Gaza’s population is particularly vulnerable to disease outbreaks.

Polio, a highly infectious virus transmitted primarily by the faecal-oral route, can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Traces of it were detected in July in sewage in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, areas in southern and central Gaza where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting have sought refuge. Children under five are at particular risk.