The Gaza Ministry of Health is calling for “immediate intervention to end the aggression and find radical solutions” to the health emergency.
Gaza's health ministry has declared a polio epidemic across the Palestinian enclave, blaming Israel's devastating military offensive for the spread of the deadly virus.
In a statement on Telegram, the ministry said Monday that the situation “poses a threat to the health of residents of Gaza and neighboring countries,” the latest sign of the worsening public health emergency caused by Israel’s genocidal war since October.
The ministry called the epidemic a “setback” for the global polio eradication program and called for “immediate intervention to end the epidemic.” [Israeli] aggression and seek radical solutions” to the lack of drinking water and personal hygiene, damaged sewage systems and the removal of tons of garbage and solid waste.
Polio, which is transmitted primarily by the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Polio cases have declined by 99 percent worldwide since 1988, thanks to mass vaccination campaigns, and efforts continue to eradicate it everywhere.
Earlier this month, the Gaza Health Ministry said it had detected “a component of poliovirus type 2” in coordination with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The virus was found in sewage “that accumulates and flows between the tents of displaced people,” the ministry said.
Already scarce supplies of clean water in the densely populated Gaza Strip are at risk of being contaminated by the virus.
On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was sending more than a million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered in the coming weeks to prevent children from becoming infected after the virus was detected in wastewater samples.
The Israeli military, which claimed to have evidence of the “type 2 polio virus component,” said it would begin offering the polio vaccine to soldiers in Gaza.
Israel's war on Gaza has damaged and destroyed sewage and water systems, and sewage has spilled into the streets near some camps for displaced Palestinians.
Last week, the UN reported that in addition to the detection of the polio virus, there has been a widespread increase in cases of hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions in Gaza deteriorate.
“This is just the beginning of the wave of disease that the Gaza Strip is going to face,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir-al Balah in central Gaza.
“Palestinians are living in makeshift tents with no toilets, no hygiene, no access to water or sanitation. There is sewage everywhere,” he said.
Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care physician, told Al Jazeera in an interview earlier this month that the presence of the polio virus in wastewater was a “ticking time bomb”.
“Normally, if you have a case of polio, you're going to isolate them, you're going to make sure they use a bathroom that no one else uses, you're going to make sure they're not around other people, [but] “That is impossible,” he said.
“At the moment, everyone is crowded into refugee camps without vaccines for at least nine months, including children who would otherwise have been vaccinated against polio and adults who, in the context of an outbreak, should receive a booster dose, including health workers.”
