The Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip is suffering immensely from the war. Is there now a new threat to them?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the polio virus responsible for polio has been discovered in the Gaza Strip. The virus was found in six areas at the end of June, said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier. “It is important to stress that the virus was only isolated from the environment.” At this point in time, no associated infections are known. No associated cases of paralysis have been registered either.
The WHO is working with local authorities to carry out a risk assessment. One possible response would be an immediate vaccination campaign, it said. Given the destruction of many health facilities, the already precarious situation of the population and the difficult hygienic conditions, the risk of diseases that could actually be prevented by vaccinations is generally increased.
Ministry of Health has soldiers vaccinated
The virus was isolated from sewage canals, reported Israeli media such as the news portal Ynet and the newspaper “Times of Israel”, citing the Israeli Ministry of Health. Parts of the sewage system in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed by the war and open sewage ponds are forming in some places. The Israeli Ministry of Health has ordered that all soldiers deployed in the Gaza Strip be vaccinated. Soldiers who have already been vaccinated should also receive a booster dose.
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Gaza Strip warned that the viruses found in sewers near refugee tents could trigger a “health catastrophe.” Thousands of people are at risk of becoming infected.
Great humanitarian need in the Gaza Strip
The polio virus is highly contagious and can cause polio. In recent years, polio viruses have been discovered in wastewater in the USA, Israel and England, among other places. In these cases, the viruses were not the wild type of polio virus, but viruses that originate from oral vaccinations with weakened but living polio pathogens. They can be excreted by vaccinated people. In Germany, only so-called inactivated vaccines, which do not contain any viable viruses, have been used for years.
Israel’s war against the Islamist Hamas has caused great humanitarian distress in the Gaza Strip for months. Israel is trying to defeat Hamas after terrorists from the Palestinian organization and other groups carried out a massacre in Israel on October 7. They killed around 1,200 Israelis and abducted around 250 other people to the Gaza Strip. In the Gaza war that followed, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced and tens of thousands killed.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
