WHO: Polio vaccination targets for children in Gaza exceeded – Firstpost

The World Health Organization said it had exceeded its polio vaccination targets in Gaza on Tuesday, the third day of a mass vaccination campaign, with about a quarter of children under 10 vaccinated.

The campaign, which was accelerated after the discovery of the first case of polio in a baby in the Gaza Strip last month, is based on daily eight-hour pauses in fighting between Israel and Hamas fighters in certain areas of the besieged enclave.

Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, told reporters that more than 161,000 children under the age of 10 had been vaccinated in the central areas in the first two days of the campaign, compared to a forecast of around 150,000.

This represents about a quarter of the total population targeted by the campaign to contain the spread of the disease, which can cause paralysis and even death in young children.

“So far everything is going well,” he said. “These humanitarian pauses are working so far. There are still ten days left.”

Later this week, the health teams will move on to southern Gaza, where they hope to reach around 340,000 children, he said, and will then move on to northern Gaza.

He said some children in the southern Gaza Strip were believed to be outside the agreed pause zone and that negotiations to reach them were continuing.

According to the WHO, at least 90 percent of children in the Gaza Strip must be vaccinated for the campaign to work and prevent the spread of polio both within the Gaza Strip and beyond its borders.