The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) had said on Wednesday that polio had been observed in Gaza, warning that children in the war-ravaged enclave would soon be infected by the disease if preventative measures were not immediately taken.
This warning statement is coming a day after the WHO revealed that there were “very likely” polio cases among Gaza’s population, the Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to his official social media account on X to share his concern about the human cost of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious virus which is spread mainly through the faecal-oral route. This virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis and death in young children.
Polio cases were reported to have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts to eradicate it.
Tedros has revealed that WHO is sending more than a million polio vaccines to Gaza to be dispensed in the coming weeks to prevent children from becoming infected with the disease.
What They’re Saying
Tedros had posted to his X account,
“The detection of polio in Gaza is another reminder of the dire conditions the population is facing. The persistence of the conflict hampers efforts to identify and respond to preventable threats such as polio.”
The Director-General further linked his post to an article he had written in French newspaper Le Monde, which was published late on Tuesday. In the article, he had said that poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples in Gaza although no cases of polio had yet been recorded.
His post on X finished with “unless immediate action is taken, it is only a matter of time before the disease reaches the thousands of unprotected children (in Hamas).”
