Gaza launches polio vaccination campaign for children amid ongoing conflict

Geneva, Aug 30 : A large-scale vaccination campaign to fight a polio outbreak in the Gaza Strip is set to begin on September 1, announced the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative for the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday.

Richard Peeperkorn told a press briefing from Gaza that the two-round polio vaccination campaign will see the administration of two drops of novel oral polio vaccine type 2 (nOPV2) to more than 640,000 children under the age of 10 across the enclave.

The campaign is to kick off this coming weekend. To facilitate the campaign, 1.26 million doses of the nOPV2 vaccine have been delivered to Gaza, with an additional 400,000 doses expected to arrive shortly, Xinhua news agency reported.

Dr. Peeperkorn emphasized that achieving at least 90 percent vaccination coverage during each round of the campaign is crucial to halting the polio outbreak in Gaza and preventing its spread beyond the region. The campaign will be carried out in stages, spanning three days for each of the three areas of Gaza. Over 2,180 workers are involved in the campaign, with 392 fixed vaccination points and nearly 300 mobile teams, Peeperkorn said.