UN agencies to begin vaccinating children against polio in Gaza in coming weeks
U.N. agencies announced Friday that they will soon begin vaccinating children against poliovirus in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
UNRWA, the largest humanitarian agency operating in Gaza, said in a social media post that it will vaccinate children in both its primary health care centers and mobile clinics “starting at the end of the month.”
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization and UNICEF “are working to implement two rounds of polio vaccination in the coming weeks to halt transmission,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros said in a social media post.
This comes a week after Gaza confirmed its first case of polio in 25 years -- a 10-month-old unvaccinated baby in the central city of Deir al-Balah, who Tedros said has “developed paralysis in the lower left leg” and “is currently in a stable condition.”
“Genomic sequencing confirmed the virus is linked to the variant poliovirus type 2 detected in environmental samples collected in June from Gaza's wastewater,” the WHO chief added.
-ABC News' Morgan Winsor