A 10-month-old girl in Gaza has been paralysed by the type 2 influenza virus, marking the second scenario in the country in 25 years. According to Reuters, the World Health Organisation ( WHO ) reported the case on Friday, prompting urgent appeals from UN agencies for a vaccination campaign.
The child has lost motion in his lower kept knee and is now stable, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The people of Gaza is more prone to disease outbreaks because the health system there has been severely damaged by the ongoing conflict.
Type 2 viruses are not more dangerous than kinds 1 and 3, but they have been the source of the most current occurrences, particularly in areas with low vaccination coverage. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees ( UNRWA ) posted on X,” Polio does not distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli children”. He warned that a humanitarian wait without action may increase the chance of spreading among kids.
The polio case was first reported by the Gaza-based health ministry’s main city, Deir Al-Balah, which is a region that is usually impacted by conflict. In reply, Hamas has supported a UN ask for a seven-day charitable pause to facilitate vaccination efforts. Israel, which has been preventing Gaza from entering since October, offered to help by allowing about one million kids to get influenza vaccines.
The Israeli military’s humanitarian unit ( COGAT ) announced that it would coordinate the transfer of 43, 000 vials of vaccine, enough for two rounds of doses for over a million children. UN organizations stressed the importance of vaccine transport and cooling despite the challenging circumstances to make this strategy effective.
Poliomyelitis is a very contagious virus that is spread primarily through contaminated water and may cause serious paralysis. In Gaza, new wastewater tests have revealed traces of the virus.
