UNRWA: Gaza polio vaccination coverage has reached 90%

Polio vaccination coverage in Gaza has reached 90 per cent, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said today, adding that the next step was to ensure hundreds of thousands of children got a second dose at the end of the month, Reuters reports.

The campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza under ten years of age against polio, which began on 1 September, presented major challenges to UNRWA and its partners due to Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign.

It followed confirmation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) last month that a baby had been partially paralysed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the Palestinian territory in 25 years.

More than 446,000 Palestinian children in central and south Gaza were vaccinated earlier this month before a campaign to vaccinate a final 200,000 children in north Gaza began on 10 September despite access restrictions, evacuation orders and shortages of fuel.

Read: Sickness can be ‘death sentence’ in Gaza as war fuels disease

The first round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza ended successfully, UNRWA’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said, adding that 90 per cent of the enclave’s children had received a first dose.

“Parties to the conflict have largely respected the different required “humanitarian pauses” showing that when there is a political will, assistance can be provided without disruption. Our next challenge is to provide children with their second dose at the end of September,” he wrote on X.

A rare positive story from #Gaza: the 1st. round of the #polio vaccination campaign ended successfully. @UNRWA & partners vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children, reaching 90% vaccination coverage.

Parties to the conflict have largely respected the different required… pic.twitter.com/QjOS7RRmrD

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) September 16, 2024