Palestinian health ministry detects first case of polio in Gaza, statement says
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. It mainly affects children under the age of 5.
The Palestinian health ministry said in a statement on Friday that it has detected the first confirmed case of polio in the Gaza Strip in the city of Deir Al-Balah for a 10-month-old baby who had not received any polio vaccination dose.
Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. It mainly affects children under the age of 5.
More To Read
- Gaza intensifies efforts to clear rubble, reopen roads amid severe shortage of fuel
- With 83 per cent of its buildings destroyed, Gaza needs more than money to rebuild
- UN releases Sh1.4 billion for Gaza aid as ceasefire, hostage release bring ‘fragile hope’
- Thousands of displaced Palestinians begin returning to northern Gaza as ceasefire takes effect
- South African activists join global flotilla to Gaza, condemn Israeli actions
- Gazans flee ‘death and devastation’ with no transportation or means of shelter
The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday (July 23) that there was a high risk of the polio virus spreading across the Gaza Strip and beyond its borders due to the dire health and sanitation situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.
Ayadil Saparbekov, team lead for health emergencies at WHO in Gaza and the West Bank, said circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 had been isolated from environmental samples from sewage in Gaza.
"There is a high risk of spreading of the circulating vaccine-derived polio virus in Gaza, not only because of the detection but because of the very dire situation with the water sanitation," he told reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.
"It may also spill over internationally, at a very high point."
More follows...
Top Stories Today
