Top WHO official warns Gaza in danger of polio outbreak
Though no cases have been detected yet, head of health emergencies at UN’s medical organization says six sewage pipes contained traces, indicating vaccinated people shed the virus
A top World Health Organization official in Palestinian areas said Tuesday he’s “extremely worried” about polio and other outbreaks of communicable diseases in Gaza after traces of the virus turned up in sewage samples in the territory.
Dr. Ayadil Saparbekov, team lead for health emergencies at WHO in the Palestinian territories, said test results and a risk assessment were expected this week about how people and medical officials should respond to a possible outbreak.
There have been no confirmed human cases of polio in Gaza, but six of seven sewage samples tested positive for vaccine-derived poliovirus, he said. That means that one or more people who got a polio vaccine jab have shed the virus in the environment.
“I am extremely worried about an outbreak happening in Gaza. And this is not only polio — the different outbreaks of the communicable diseases that may happen,” he told a United Nations briefing in Geneva by video, alluding to a hepatitis outbreak there in 2023.
Saparbekov said lack of water, sanitation, and access to health care could lead to more people dying of communicable diseases than from injury-related conditions.
“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.”
The Gaza Strip has been ravaged by a war that began on October 7 when the Palestinian terror group Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and during which 251 people were taken as hostages to Gaza. Israel responded with a military campaign to dismantle Hamas and free the hostages.
The fighting has damaged large areas of Gaza and its infrastructure.
Rolando Gomez, a United Nations spokesperson in Geneva, said Israel “as the occupying power” has a responsibility “to ensure assistance reaches those in need in Gaza” and to “create an enabling environment for the UN and our partners to operate.”
The WHO has previously said the war between Israel and Hamas disrupted routine immunization programs in Gaza, and children are at increased risk for diseases such as polio.
Israel on Sunday announced plans to vaccinate its soldiers.
The wide-scale vaccination campaign is for all forces in regular service as well as reserves and is not compulsory.
“The IDF will work in coordination with the Health Ministry to ensure the health of IDF soldiers and the public, and will continue to carry out inspections in the Gaza Strip,” a spokesperson said.
IDF soldiers were also instructed to take preventive actions and maintain personal hygiene.
Alongside the vaccination campaign for soldiers, the IDF is working with international organizations to bring more vaccines into the Strip for Gazans.
Polio is primarily spread through fecal-oral contamination, sometimes by drinking contaminated water, poor sanitation, or poor control of sewage.
It is a highly infectious disease, mostly affecting young children, that attacks the nervous system. It can lead to paralysis and in some cases death.
In Israel, approximately 95% of all children receive polio vaccines, and the country has largely wiped out the disease, according to the Health Ministry.
The Times of Israel Community.