Gazans need access to polio vaccines amid ‘deathly cycle’ of malnutrition, heat and disease, say UN aid agencies

In a bid to prevent a polio epidemic in Gaza, UN humanitarians on Tuesday repeated continuing international calls for a ceasefire, to allow a mass vaccination campaign to get under way.

Almost 10 months of war and intense Israeli bombardment have shattered healthcare in Gaza and disrupted routine inoculation rounds for youngsters, leaving them exposed to a range of preventable diseases including polio, which the UN World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed had been identified last month in several sewage samples taken from Gaza.

Speaking to journalists in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that a ceasefire would be “the best” solution, before calling at the very least for the enclave’s roads to be kept clear and for safe access for medical and other relief supplies. “Otherwise, the vaccines would be sitting as many other trucks are across the border, either on the Rafah side or at the other checkpoints either inside or just inside or outside Gaza,” he said, a week since the UN health agency announced that it was sending one million polio vaccines to the Strip.

No cases of paralysis have been reported so far, according to WHO.

If a child receives the full course of vaccines, the risk of contracting paralyzing polio is “negligible”, said UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder. He insisted that vaccine rates had been “very high” before war erupted in response to Hamas-led terror attacks on multiple targets in southern Israel which left some 1,250 dead and more than 250 taken hostage. “But the mass displacement, the decimation of health infrastructure, the horrendously insecure operating environment, they all make it much, much more difficult, hence putting more and more children at risk,” he said, adding that vaccination coverage was now at around 89 per cent – “hence you’ve got this increased risk for children”.

Condemning the reported destruction last week of a key water treatment station in the southern city of Rafah, Mr. Elder underscored the additional health dangers this had created for Gazans, now that it had been “blown up”. It is yet another grim reminder on these assaults on families who are already in desperate need of water,” he said.

Today across Gaza, average water availability has fallen to between two and nine litres per person, per day, whereas the minimum should be 15 litres, Mr. Elder continued. “Somehow people are holding on, but of course we are now in that deathly cycle whereby children are very malnourished, there is immense heat, there is lack of water, there's a horrendous lack of sanitation and that's the cycle. On top of that, of course, there is a very, very active conflict.”

In its latest update issued Monday evening, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said that more than 200,000 people in Gaza – nine per cent of the population – have been forcibly displaced by Israeli evacuation orders.

Directives issued by the Israeli authorities on Saturday and Sunday impacted Rafah, Khan Younis and Deir al Balah “where a combined 56,000 people had been sheltering”, OCHA said, before warning that the development comes “at a time when water, sanitation and hygiene conditions are being further eroded in Gaza, with infectious diseases on the rise”.

SHOTLIST

1. Exterior medium: UN Geneva flag alley.
2. SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “That report that many of you will have seen of one of the main water facilities in Rafah being blown up is of course abhorrent and again demonstrates a flagrant disregard for children's rights. It is yet another grim reminder on these assaults on families who are already in desperate need of water.”
3. Medium: podium speaker in Press room, TV monitor showing Mr. Elder speaking via video link.
4. SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “Without it, already vulnerable children or families, they're likely to be forced again, increasingly, to resort to unsafe water, so putting them in all those risks that we see time and time again, day after day in Gaza: dehydration, malnutrition, diseases.”
5. Medium-wide, journalists, TV monitors.
6. SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “We're still at a point that somehow people are holding on, but of course we are now in that deathly cycle whereby children are very malnourished, there is immense heat, there is lack of water, there's a horrendous lack of sanitation and that's the cycle. On top of that, of course, there is a very, very active conflict.”
7. Medium-wide: podium speaker, journalists and TV monitor showing Mr. Elder speaking via video link.
8. SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “The range of water availability in Gaza has been reduced to between two and nine litres per person, per day, two to nine; according to humanitarian standards, it should be 15 litres of water.”
9. Medium-wide, TV screens showing WHO spokesperson speaking via videolink.
10. SOUNDBITE (English) – Christian Lindmeier, spokesperson, WHO: “We need yeah then a ceasefire - the best - but at least cleared and safe roads, safe access. Otherwise, the vaccines would be sitting as many other trucks are across the border, either on the Rafah side or at the other checkpoints either inside or just inside or outside Gaza, with not much help.”
11. Medium-wide, podium speaker, journalists and TV screens.
12. SOUNDBITE (English) – James Elder, spokesperson, UNICEF: “The Gaza Strip previously had a very high vaccination coverage across the population. But due to the impact of the conflict, coverage now for example, around polio is around 89 per cent, down from around 99 per cent, before the conflict. Hence you’ve got this increased risk for children.”
13. Medium, participants seated in Press room.
14. Medium, participant, Press room.
15. Medium, participant, Press room.