At the clinic in Khan Younis, Dr. Tasneem Abu Al-Qambaz writes a prescription for a little girl with a fever. Her mother is concerned it might be polio after the first confirmed case in Gaza in 25 years was announced this week.
On Abu Al-Qambaz’s desk is a box filled with vials of the polio vaccine, in preparation for the widespread vaccination effort starting Sunday during what’s being called a humanitarian pause in fighting.
“Due to the dirty water, dirty food and the lack of detergents, polio started to attack our city,” Abu Al-Qambaz told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife. “The WHO decided to bring back a vaccine for all children ages one day until 10 years.”
Israel came to an agreement with the World Health Organization (WHO) for a series of three-day humanitarian pauses in different areas of the war-torn territory to allow polio vaccine rollout.
The WHO aims to vaccinate more than 640,000 kids, or 90 per cent of Gaza’s children under 10 through the 1.2 million vaccines already delivered; 400,000 are still on their way to the strip.
The WHO has already said the time allotted probably won’t be enough.
In July, polio was detected in six wastewater samples from Deir al Balah and Khan Younis tested by Israel and international organizations.
Poliovirus is highly infectious, spreading through contact with feces of an infected person, or contaminated food or water. In its most severe form, it can cause paralysis, trouble breathing, or death. It mainly affects kids under five.
“Polio is a direct consequence of the war,” said Casey Harrity, global director humanitarian program quality at Save The Children.
More than 1.2 million doses of polio vaccine have been delivered into Gaza, with more to come. Health workers are trained, and a phased vaccine campaign will roll out this weekend — but the WHO chief is cautioning that the time allotted to execute the phased campaign is ‘unlikely to be enough.’
Displacement makes vaccination harder
As the war approaches its 11th month, much of Gaza’s sanitation infrastructure and health infrastructure has been destroyed. And international organizations have reported raw sewage flowing through displacement camps, many of which already have poor sanitation.
Harrity says displacement will be another obstacle for teams on the ground trying to get as many needles into arms as possible during the temporary pause in fighting.
“In the month of August, nearly 300,000 people were displaced, some for the sixth, seventh, and eighth time from relocation orders issued by the Israelis,” she said.
More than 2,180 staff have been trained to provide vaccinations and information about the campaign to people in Gaza. The pauses will run between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. on three consecutive days, and will begin in central Gaza on Sunday before moving to the south and then up to the north, WHO officials told Reuters.
The pauses could be extended for a fourth day in each phase, which the WHO said would likely be needed.
WHO, UNICEF and the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA will carry out the campaign. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s senior offiical for the Palestinian territories, said there would be nearly 400 places where parents could bring their children to receive the oral vaccine.
He said there are also 300 mobile teams that would be used to reach children in more difficult places.
“It’s not ideal,” said Peeperkorn in Geneva Friday. “We think it is feasible if all of the pieces of the puzzle are in place.”
In order to effectively vaccinate and ensure immunization against polio, a booster must be administered in a month, meaning these same organizations will have to negotiate another humanitarian pause to vaccinate children again.
Infectious diseases spreading
The planned pauses are unconnected with negotiations that have been underway for months to try to agree to a halt in the fighting in Gaza and return Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees held by Israel.
“Ultimately the only solution to safeguard the health of the children of Gaza is a ceasefire,” said WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus. “The best medicine is peace.”
Back at her clinic in Khan Younis, Abu Al-Qambaz finishes seeing her last patients.
“A lot of infectious diseases have spread here in Gaza,” she said.
Most of Gaza’s hospitals were damaged or destroyed with only 17 out of the 36 hospitals in the territory partially functional and less than half of the 132 primary health centers still operational, according to WHO figures.
The Israel-Hamas war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people and saw 250 hostages taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. The retaliatory incursion into the strip has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry.