Polio Vaccine Campaign Begins In Gaza: Health Official
(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
AFP
Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territories: A polio vaccination campaign officially began Sunday in the Gaza Strip where the United Nations has announced "humanitarian pauses" to allow for large-scale innoculation, a health official told AFP.
The campaign was announced after Gaza recorded its first polio case in a quarter of a century last month.
It officially began on Sunday in three health centres in central Gaza, a day after an unspecified number of children were vaccinated in the southern area of the Gaza Strip.
Children aged from one-day-old to 10 years arrived at the centres to receive the dose as drones flew overhead, said Yasser Shaabane, medical director of Al-Awda hospital in central Gaza said.
"There are a lot of drones flying over central Gaza and we hope this vaccination campaign for children will be calm," said Shaabane.
The campaign began at 9:00 am (0600 GMT), he said.
The campaign aims to vaccinate more than 640,000 children in the besieged Palestinian territory, devastated by almost 11 months of war.
The campaign also aims to administer the first dose -- two drops -- to at least 90 percent of the territory's children.
Polio, which had been eradicated in Gaza for 25 years, reappeared in the midst of the hostilities that began on October 7.
WHO has dispatched 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine to Gaza already.
The health ministry in Gaza has identified 67 vaccination centres -- mostly hospitals, smaller health centres and schools -- in central Gaza, 59 in southern Gaza and 33 in northern Gaza to administer the doses.
The second dose of the vaccine must be given four weeks after the first.
MENAFN01092024000063011010ID1108623963
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.