{"id":1303,"date":"2024-08-28T11:53:04","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T11:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/28\/polio-vaccines-are-coming-to-children-in-gaza-what-road-awaits-them\/"},"modified":"2024-08-28T11:53:04","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T11:53:04","slug":"polio-vaccines-are-coming-to-children-in-gaza-what-road-awaits-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/28\/polio-vaccines-are-coming-to-children-in-gaza-what-road-awaits-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Polio vaccines are coming to children in Gaza. What road awaits them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After six sewage samples taken in Gaza in late June tested positive for poliovirus, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that it was \u201cjust a matter of time\u201d before the disease reached thousands of Palestinian children. <\/p>\n

At the time of his warning <\/strong>in late July, cases of acute flaccid paralysis, a symptom of poliovirus infection, had been flagged in the area where the samples were taken. Just week\u2019s later, Gaza\u2019s first polio case in 25 years was confirmed in an unvaccinated 10-month-old. <\/p>\n

Now more than 1.2 million oral polio vaccines have arrived in the Gaza Strip, with millions more expected in coming days. The aim is to vaccinate about 640,000 children under the age of 10 with two doses each. <\/p>\n

A plan is in place to access the territory and distribute them \u2014 all while keeping the vials in the vital temperature range of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit). <\/p>\n

Still, there are huge challenges ahead to administer the vaccines. <\/p>\n

WHO is joined in the vaccination effort by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the United Nations Children\u2019s Fund, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and other partners. Each organization has been assigned a role in the technical and strategic \u201cmicroplan\u201d to execute the <\/strong>vaccine campaign. <\/p>\n

Above all, the organizations have emphasized that a ceasefire \u2014 what they are calling a \u201cpolio pause\u201d\u2014 is crucial. Without one, they say, <\/strong>children in Gaza will continue to become paralyzed, and the deadly disease will spread to the broader region and beyond. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ministry called on international organizations to work and pressure the occupying authorities to stop the continuous aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip so that medical teams can vaccinate children and prevent the spread of the polio virus,\u201d the Ministry of Health in Ramallah said on Sunday. <\/p>\n

The cohort and other aid groups have called for seven days to safely administer the vaccines. Hamas said in a statement August 16 <\/strong>that it supports the polio pause. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, which manages the flow of aid into Gaza, previously said that local and international medical teams would administer vaccines to unvaccinated children in Gaza \u201cin the coming days\u201d and would coordinate with the Israeli military to use \u201chumanitarian pauses that will allow the population to reach the medical centers where the vaccinations will be administered.\u201d <\/p>\n

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A medical team from the Palestinian Red Crescent vaccinates a child against poiio as part of a routine campaign at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis on August 22.<\/span> <\/div>
Hani Alshaer\/Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Discussions around temporary pauses in fighting are still ongoing. The tentative date to begin vaccinations is August 31 if conditions allow it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are optimistic and getting positive signals that all parties want this campaign done and done well. Everybody agrees that that needs to happen. That\u2019s encouraging, but the details are yet to be worked out,\u201d said Dr. Hamid Jafari, WHO\u2019s polio director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, broader negotiations \u2014 mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt \u2014 are also underway, aiming to end 10 months of conflict after Israel launched a war on Hamas following the group\u2019s October 7 attack. But progress in the talks does not guarantee a final agreement anytime soon. <\/p>\n

Clarity and confidence in vaccination<\/h2>\n

Even with humanitarian pauses, the delivery of vaccines to Gaza is just the start of an obstacle-filled campaign. <\/p>\n

The plan begins with each international organization assigned a role, according to Jonathan Crickx, chief of communications at UNICEF Palestine. <\/p>\n

WHO is responsible for approving the vaccines, conducting on-the-ground monitoring and testing suspected environmental and human polio cases. <\/p>\n

UNICEF is procuring and supplying vaccines and refrigeration materials and leading an awareness campaign for civilians. It will share information on who can get vaccinated, where and why through social media, mass media and printed leaflets. <\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies are making daily decisions whether they go out, risk their lives to get food or water or fuel,\u201d Jafari said. \u201cAnd we are now going to be asking them to come out to get vaccinations. What do they do? In order to motivate them, we have to make sure that there is clarity of information and enough confidence and trust that it will be safe.\u201d <\/p>\n

A ceasefire is the only way to ensure this, he said. <\/p>\n

As the awareness campaign progresses, the vaccines will be distributed to 10 UNRWA health facilities and up to 100 mobile medical points across the Gaza Strip. <\/p>\n

UNRWA is on the ground to get vaccines into mouths through these health facilities, shelters and mobile units. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose mobile teams go from one shelter to another and in the areas where people have taken refuge that are not inside shelters,\u201d UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said. \u201cPeople have taken refuge anywhere: in the open, on the streets, by the beach, wherever they can.\u201d <\/p>\n

Protecting the cold chain<\/h2>\n

For WHO and UNICEF, one of the most crucial responsibilities is protecting the cold chain: The vaccines must be kept within a limited temperature range, or they will spoil. This requires ice boxes, mobile fridges, working generators, solar panels and fuel. The necessary equipment to keep the vaccines cold was already delivered to Gaza last week, according to the Health Ministry in Ramallah. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely critical not only that the vaccine is brought into Gaza but that it\u2019s protected. For them, the chain is a whole operation,\u201d Touma said. <\/p>\n

The campaign will enter a region that has experienced \u201cpersistent fuel shortages\u201d since October, when Israeli authorities cut off the feeder line supply and shut down the local power plant, the UN said. <\/p>\n

The Deir al-Balah warehouse and UNRWA health facilities need this fleeting supply, and each vaccine pack is equipped with temperature-sensitive stickers to indicate whether the cold chain breaks, according to Crickx. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge challenge,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m talking about that warehouse in Deir al-Balah and the UNRWA health facilities, we have to realize that this is not much. It\u2019s only 25% of the cold chain capacity before the war. \u2026 The Gaza Strip is exposed to a very serious lack of reliable power supply.\u201d <\/p>\n

Aid organizations have tried to supplement the dwindling supply by bringing in fuel. However, a July Oxfam International report said that, on average, only a fifth of what\u2019s required for the functioning of vital services across Gaza has been allowed to cross the border. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven before the seventh of October, Gaza was running on only eight hours of electricity a day. \u2026 The Israeli government wouldn\u2019t allow specific fuel allocations,\u201d said Bushra Khalidi, the Oxfam policy lead who worked on the report. \u201cAs soon as the fuel cut in October, the everything shut.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Aid trucks loaded with supplies for Gaza wait in Arish, Egypt, in May.<\/span> <\/div>
Ali Moustafa\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had goods that are just sitting there in the trucks since May, exposed,\u201d said Edward Carins, emergency response senior operations manager at humanitarian aid organization Mercy Corps. \u201cAccess is virtually nonexistent or extremely restricted.\u201d <\/p>\n

On average, only 76 humanitarian trucks entered the Gaza Strip each day from August 1 to 12, an 85% drop from an average of 500 trucks before the crisis, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. <\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) gave the polio vaccines special permission to access the territory, along with other \u201ccold chain\u201d items that are typically not allowed inside Gaza. <\/p>\n

However, the void of existing resources means there is little backup to protect the cold chain if something were to go wrong, according to Carins. <\/p>\n

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Challenges on the ground<\/h2>\n

Even with robust plans in place, the vaccine vials have crossed into an \u201cepicenter\u201d of disease. <\/p>\n

The collapse of water, sewage and health-care systems combined with shortages of aid, food and sanitation supplies, overcrowding, flooding and the plummeted vaccination rates has turned the region into \u201can epicenter for various diseases,\u201d said Touma, the UNRWA communications director. <\/p>\n

Polio is a highly contagious viral infection spread mainly through contaminated water or food. The virus attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis, respiratory issues and even death. All the factors that facilitate poliovirus transmission are present in Gaza, according to WHO\u2019s <\/strong>Jafari. <\/p>\n

Beyond polio, the conditions have contributed to surging cases of hepatitis, jaundice, diarrheal illnesses and highly contagious skin rashes, among other infectious and gastrointestinal diseases, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole of Gaza has become one huge refugee camp,\u201d Touma added. \u201cI saw tens of thousands of people just piling up on top of each other \u2026 The sewage is overflowing. It was far from clean. I remember a colleague telling us that in community hospitals, after quite a big attack by Israeli forces, he saw staff cleaning the floor with water because they had no disinfectant.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is sick all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time,\u201d Khalidi said. Her own family and friends \u201care always sick. They were in Rafah, and they were sick. They were in Gaza City, they were sick, and now they are in a refugee camp in Deir al-Balah, and they\u2019re still sick. It\u2019s not related to the area they are. It\u2019s related to the water. My friend has had bloody diarrhea for the last four months and is unable to get medical care for it, and he\u2019s been displaced almost 15 times.\u201d <\/p>\n

Since October, nearly 86% of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders by the Israeli military, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. As of Wednesday, 1.9 million people \u2013 9 in 10 people across the Gaza Strip \u2013 are internally displaced, the UN said. <\/p>\n

This constant internal displacement due to mass evacuation orders and \u201cunlivable conditions\u201d will make it challenging to reach the polio vaccination campaign\u2019s goal of at least 90% coverage, according to Jafari. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are starting from two positions of disadvantage,\u201d he said. \u201cOne is that we detected this outbreak quite late, and the virus is already widespread. We\u2019ve already failed one child who\u2019s been paralyzed by polio now, and more will happen. The second disadvantage is that here we can\u2019t go to houses [because of displacement]. We have to convince families to come to the vaccination sites.\u201d <\/p>\n

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      UNRWA identified the \u201cnotoriously inaccessible\u201d northern territory of Gaza \u2014 the first area Israel attacked after October 7 \u2014 as a unique challenge amid the already difficult task of reaching families across the strip. <\/p>\n

      \u201cIt\u2019s impossible from to go from Deir al-Balah to the North. It\u2019s too dangerous. The IDF won\u2019t let it. It\u2019s full of unexploded ordnances and full of bandits. Goods and people generally are not passing between the North and middle area, and most aid agencies have very limited presence there,\u201d Carins said. <\/p>\n

      He said he hopes that when the world sees workers attempt to take the polio vaccines into the North, people will also notice the broader issues at hand. <\/p>\n

      \u201cWe look at the polio vaccinations and are glad that they are going ahead, hopefully under a ceasefire, but are reminded that this campaign is a direct symptom of the fact that this has gone way, way, way too far,\u201d Carins added. \u201cThe conditions that are now present in Gaza are totally unacceptable \u2026 This week, it\u2019s polio vaccinations. Next week, it will always be something else. These are scars that Gaza is going to have to deal with for decades to come.\u201d <\/p>\n

      Quelling global spread<\/h2>\n

      Touma highlighted the urgency of the polio vaccine campaign in Gaza. <\/p>\n

      \u201cPolio is vicious. It can spread very quickly. It doesn\u2019t know any borders or front lines, and it doesn\u2019t need a visa,\u201d Touma said. <\/p>\n

      To illustrate the virus\u2019 capabilities, Jafari pointed to a 2022 incident in which the same strain spread to London, New York and Israel \u2014 places known for having \u201coptimal sanitation and public health infrastructure.\u201d <\/p>\n

      \ufeffBefore the war, Gaza had near-universal vaccine coverage, but it has since dropped to just over 80%, a number WHO hopes to raise to 90% to 95% by the end of the new campaign. <\/p>\n

      \u201cIf we can\u2019t [reach 90% to 95% vaccine coverage in Gaza], <\/strong>this outbreak will continue. More children will get paralyzed. This outbreak will spread into Israel and into surrounding countries,\u201d Jafari said. <\/p>\n

      \u201cIt is not only a regional threat, it\u2019s a global threat.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

      This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      After six sewage samples taken in Gaza in late June tested positive for poliovirus, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that it was \u201cjust a matter of time\u201d before the disease reached thousands of Palestinian children. At the time of his warning in late July, cases of acute flaccid paralysis, a symptom of poliovirus infection, had …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"loftocean_post_primary_category":0,"loftocean_post_format_gallery":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_ids":"","loftocean_post_format_gallery_urls":"","loftocean_post_format_video_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_video_url":"","loftocean_post_format_video_type":"","loftocean_post_format_video":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_type":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_url":"","loftocean_post_format_audio_id":0,"loftocean_post_format_audio":"","loftocean-featured-post":"","loftocean-like-count":0,"loftocean-view-count":534,"tinysalt_single_post_intro_label":"","tinysalt_single_post_intro_description":"","tinysalt_hide_post_featured_image":"","tinysalt_post_featured_media_position":"","tinysalt_single_site_header_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header":"0","tinysalt_single_custom_sticky_site_header_style":"sticky-scroll-up","tinysalt_single_site_footer_source":"","tinysalt_single_custom_site_footer":"0","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/retirednurseblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}