WHO ‘extremely worried,’ warns polio at high risk of spreading beyond Gaza

World Health Organization official warns that vaccine-derived polio strain detected in Gaza Strip is at ‘high risk’ of ‘spilling over’ beyond the coastal enclave’s borders.

By World Israel News Staff

Officials from the World Health Organization warned Tuesday that a strain of vaccine-derived polio virus found in the Gaza Strip could spread beyond the coastal enclave, raising the risk for nearby areas.

Speaking from Jerusalem in a video call with journalists in Geneva, Dr. Ayadil Saparbekov, who heads up the World Health Organization’s medical emergencies operations in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, warned that the strain of polio discovered by Israel’s health ministry in Gaza sewage samples could be spread outside of the Strip.

“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,” Saparbekov said.

“It may also spill over internationally, at a very high point.”

The World Health Organization is “extremely worried” over the possibility of an epidemic caused by the polio strain, adding that efforts to combat its spread in Gaza are “very difficult” given the lack of proper sewage treatment services in the coastal enclave.

On Sunday, Israel’s military announced that it has launched a voluntary vaccination program against polio for IDF soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip.

The vaccine campaign, launched in conjunction with the Health Ministry, was launched after traces of highly contagious polio virus was detected in contaminated water in Gaza.

Alongside the vaccination campaign for soldiers, the IDF is working with various organizations to bring vaccines into the Gaza Strip for the civilian population, the Israeli military said, with The IDF’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Ghassan Alian, said to be in contact with foreign organizations to facilitate the entry of additional polio vaccine doses for the residents of the Gaza Strip.