Gaza: Israel has refused to coordinate the entry of medical teams for polio vaccination in areas east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Gaza’s Health Ministry has said. The area contains “a large percentage of the target group of children,” the ministry noted in a statement on Thursday. The ministry appealed to relevant institutions “to urgently intervene to ensure the success of the vaccination campaign by reaching all children wherever they are.”
The second phase of a polio vaccination campaign for Palestinian children in southern Gaza began on Thursday. More than 189,000 children were vaccinated in the first phase of the campaign in central Gaza.“We started today the second phase of the polio vaccination campaign in Khan Younis city,” Dr Abdul Hadi Seyam told the Anadolu news agency.“The campaign targets children under the age of ten, and there is significant interest from parents in vaccinating their children against this serious disease,” Seyam added.He noted that medical teams were working with all their capabilities to vaccinate as many children as possible in the besieged enclave.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health declared Gaza a polio epidemic zone at the end of July, and on August 16 conformed the first case of polio in a 10-month-old child. On the same date, the World Health Organization (WHO) said “three children presenting with suspected acute flaccid paralysis (AFP), a common symptom of polio, have since been reported in the Gaza Strip.”
