In response to the recent outbreak of polio in the Gaza Strip, UN agencies and local health officials are joining forces to launch a comprehensive vaccination campaign. The goal is to immunize 640,000 children against the crippling disease by implementing localized pauses in the ongoing conflicts between Israeli forces and Hamas fighters. The initial window for vaccination is scheduled to begin on Sunday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that a minimum of 90% of children under 10 must be vaccinated within a short timeframe for the campaign to be effective. The discovery of the first confirmed case of polio in 25 years in Gaza has raised concerns among experts, who warn of a potential wider regional outbreak if the virus is not contained.

One-year-old Abdulrahman Abu Judyan, whose family resides in a crowded tent camp in central Gaza, recently received a devastating diagnosis of polio. His mother, Niveen, recounts her shock and worries about her son's future, as he is now partially paralyzed in one leg. Due to the circumstances and the disruption of regular immunizations during the ongoing conflicts, many children like Abdulrahman are left vulnerable to infections.

The conditions in Gaza, with a high rate of displacement and strained health services, are conducive to the spread of diseases such as polio. Following the detection of the virus in wastewater samples taken in June, UN agencies have been working tirelessly to establish an emergency mass vaccination program. Around 1.3 million vaccine doses have been transported by UNICEF through the Kerem Shalom checkpoint, with an additional 400,000 doses set to arrive soon.

In a positive development, the WHO has reached an agreement with Israel to implement limited pauses in the fighting, allowing the polio vaccination program to proceed. Central Gaza will be the starting point, with subsequent expansion to the south and north. Each "humanitarian pause" will last from 06:00 to 15:00 local time over three days, with the possibility of extending it if necessary.

Jonathan Crickx from UNICEF emphasizes the crucial need for these temporary truces to hold, highlighting the impossibility of carrying out a polio vaccination campaign in an active combat zone. Over 2,000 workers, mainly locals, are participating in the immunization effort. More than 400 fixed vaccination sites, including healthcare centers, hospitals, clinics, and field hospitals, will be established, along with 230 outreach sites.

Each child will receive two drops of oral polio vaccine in two rounds, with the second dose administered four weeks after the first. The speed of the program's implementation is essential to prevent virus mutation and transmission. The polio variant responsible for the outbreak is a mutated form of the oral polio vaccine itself, posing the risk of new epidemics.

With doctors in Gaza on high alert for potential polio infections, tests are being conducted in a WHO-approved laboratory in Jordan. Dr. Hamid Jafari, WHO director of polio eradication for the eastern Mediterranean, warns that without intervention, more children could be paralyzed by the virus, and there is a risk of it spreading to neighboring regions.

As the focus remains on Gaza, where children make up nearly half of the population, a glimmer of hope arises amidst the ongoing war. The vaccination campaign aims to eliminate one source of suffering by providing hundreds of thousands of Gaza children with protection against polio.