Palestinian health officials on Friday reported the first case of polio in the Gaza city of Deir al-Balah in a 10-month-old child who was not vaccinated. It is the first case in several years in the coastal region, which has been prone to flooding. The Israel-Hamas war has been going on since October 7,
After the child showed symptoms, tests were carried out in Jordan’s capital, Amman, and the case was confirmed as polio, health officials said.
This potentially fatal, paralyzing disease mostly affects children under 5 and is usually spread through contaminated water. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the spread of polio has never been stopped.
The World Health Organization did not immediately respond to requests to confirm the case. However, the United Nations health and children’s agencies have called for a seven-day halt in fighting from the end of August so that 640,000 Palestinian children can be vaccinated against polio.
He said last month the poliovirus was detected in wastewater from two major cities in Gaza, which the United Nations says has been polio-free for 25 years.
The humanitarian community has warned of a resurgence of polio since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage. Israel’s devastating counter-offensive has claimed more than 40,000 lives in Gaza in the 10-month-long conflict and created a catastrophic humanitarian situation that health officials say has created a public health emergency.
In July, the World Health Organization said it had detected a type 2 variant of the virus in wastewater samples from southern Khan Younis and central Deir al-Balah, linked to a strain of polio virus found in Egypt last year.
Although the World Health Organization has not confirmed any polio cases, it said on Friday that three children in Gaza had been diagnosed with acute flaccid paralysis – a condition characterized by a loss of muscle tone and the onset of weakness or paralysis – a common symptom of polio.
The agency said stool samples from the children were sent to the Jordan National Polio Laboratory for testing.
The WHO said more than 1.6 million doses of polio vaccine are expected to arrive in Gaza by the end of August, in time for the vaccination campaign, which will be carried out in two phases. Children under the age of 10 will be given two drops of an oral vaccine against type 2 of the polio virus.
Health officials in Gaza have warned they will not be able to stop the spread of polio or treat people unless there is an immediate ceasefire. The stark warning came as international mediators expressed hope a ceasefire deal would be reached soon.
Mediators said two days of talks in Qatar ended on Friday, and said they planned to meet again in Cairo next week to reach an agreement to stop the fighting.
The mediators spent months drawing up a three-step plan under which Hamas would release the hostages in exchange for a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.