In the midst of our discussions over the past two weeks on everything from pandemic preparedness and vaccination to humanitarian crises and international organizations, I came across a newly published article in the New York Times, "After 11 Months of War, Gaza and the Region Face a New Threat: Polio" which really underscores the importance of all that we have learned so far.
In Gaza, this weekend will be spent rolling out a vaccine campaign in the midst of war. The WHO and UNICEF have delivered more than 1.2 million doses of polio vaccination from Indonesia, with plans for Israeli military and Hamas to observe brief pauses in fighting in order to vaccinate ~640,000 children under age 10. This cooperation amongst the military and international organizations is unprecedented, but I believe also really speaks to the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child, so as not to commit one of the grave violations against children in times of war - namely denial of humanitarian assistance essential for children's survival by parties to the conflict.
It is thought that at least 90-95% of children need to be vaccinated in order to stop the disease from spreading and achieve herd immunity, and a second round of immunizations for boosters will need to be given four weeks after the first dosages. The initial stage of immunization will take a force of over 2,000 health and community aid workers in Gaza, who will administer the vaccine for nine hours a day for three days in each of Gaza's three main regions - certainly not a small undertaking.
This comes nearly six weeks after the WHO first said that traces of poliovirus had been found in wastewater in Gaza, and two weeks after an 11 month old was confirmed to be Gaza's first case of polio in 25 years. He was born just before the war began last October, and was unable to get his routine vaccinations due to his family being displaced - now, he is paralyzed in one leg. This is unfortunately just one example, as health officials in Gaza have reported multiple children with symptoms consistent with polio, likely the result of severely unsanitary conditions combined with deteriorating health services across the region.
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the top WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters "not doing anything would be really bad. We have to stop this transmission in Gaza, and we have to avoid the transmission outside Gaza." As we have seen in global health, whether it be the spread of COVID, the initial case of Ebola in the US, or the recent measles exposure in our own hospital, in the day and age where you can travel across the world in mere hours, as long as there are even just a few cases of polio, we all remain at risk.
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