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Polio vaccination campaign set to begin in Gaza Strip

A health worker administers the Polio vaccine to a baby in Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on September 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The World Health Organization said Israel had agreed to at least three days of “humanitarian pauses” in parts of Gaza, starting on August 31, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the territory recorded its first case of polio in a quarter of a century. - Eyad BABA / AFPA health worker administers the Polio vaccine to a baby in Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on September 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The World Health Organization said Israel had agreed to at least three days of “humanitarian pauses” in parts of Gaza, starting on August 31, to facilitate a vaccination drive after the territory recorded its first case of polio in a quarter of a century. - Eyad BABA / AFP

GAZA: Hundreds of thousands of children are to be vaccinated against polio in the embattled Gaza Strip from Sunday morning, reported German news agency (dpa).

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), hospitals, doctors’ surgeries and mobile teams are to start immunising 640,000 children against the virus responsible for polio within a few days. Four weeks must separate the two doses that give full immunisation.

The aim is to reach more than 90 per cent of children under the age of 10. To this end, there are to be temporary and localised pauses in the campaign.

The first vaccine doses were administered at a press conference organised by the health authority in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. The WHO called it an opening ceremony.

- Bernama, dpa