The European Union on Thursday called for “immediate” humanitarian pauses to allow the polio vaccination of all children in the Gaza Strip, which last month recorded its first case of the disease in 25 years.
The World Health Organization and UN children’s fund UNICEF are planning two vaccination drives across the territory in coming weeks, providing oral vaccine against type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2) to more than 640,000 children.
“Commitment to the humanitarian pauses by all parties will be crucial to allow the successful and timely implementation of these urgent campaigns,” the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said on behalf of the 27-country bloc in a statement.
“An epidemic among a population already weakened by over 10 months of fighting and displacement, malnourishment, lack of basic health services, and deplorable sanitary conditions, as well as further spread internationally, must be avoided,” he said.
The majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million Palestinians, around half of them children according to the United Nations, have been displaced and crammed into increasingly smaller areas.
The UN and other non-governmental groups have raised the alarm about the deteriorating health situation in Gaza where stagnant water, mountains of rubble and rubbish, high summer temperatures and overcrowding form a breeding ground for epidemics.
With AFP
