The first phase of a large-scale polio vaccination campaign in Gaza is set to conclude on Thursday, with organizers hopeful of soon fulfilling their goal of inoculating 640,000 children under 10.
Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the U.N. agency that aids Palestinians in Gaza, said that aside from an episode on Monday, when Israeli troops detained a U.N. convoy of aid and medical workers heading to northern Gaza to conduct inoculations, the campaign had been going well in challenging wartime conditions. There were no “red flags” or incidents on Wednesday, she said, enabling the final stage to proceed as planned on Thursday.
Nearly 530,000 children in Gaza had received the first of two doses of the vaccine by Wednesday, UNRWA said on social media. For the effort to be considered a success, health workers must also be able to administer a booster round of vaccinations in a few weeks.
The newly vaccinated group made up more than 80 percent of those whom authorities were hoping to inoculate, health authorities in Gaza said in a statement. Health experts say that 90 percent of children under 10 must receive both doses of the vaccine to avert the spread of polio, which is highly contagious and can cause paralysis and death in the unvaccinated.
Traces of poliovirus were found in wastewater in Gaza this summer. In August, a nearly 1-year-old boy was confirmed to be the first polio case in the enclave in 25 years.
Polio can thrive in unsanitary conditions and in places where vaccination rates are not high enough. Health officials have said that vaccination rates in Gaza, at about 99 percent as recently as 2022, have dropped significantly among babies because of the war. Much of Gaza’s infrastructure and waste management systems have been destroyed over the past 11 months, since Israel launched a retaliatory offensive in response to the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, compounding the risk for unvaccinated children.
Before the health workers could deliver the two-drop oral vaccine, U.N. agencies, including UNRWA, the World Health Organization and UNICEF, needed to ensure that doctors, volunteers and clinics would be in place, Ms. Touma said. The groups also had to acquire the vaccines, which the W.H.O. obtained from Indonesia, as well as refrigerators to keep them cool, and fuel for generators, to ensure that the doses would not spoil if the power went out.
The first stage of the campaign was divided into three phases of about three days each, starting in central Gaza, moving to the south of the enclave and, finally, in the northern area.
Hamas and the Israeli military agreed to pauses in fighting from morning until afternoon in areas where the campaign was being conducted. Rik Peeperkorn, the W.H.O.’s representative in Gaza and the West Bank, told reporters in a news briefing in late August, just before the first stage of the campaign was set to begin, that the parties had agreed to humanitarian pauses for the second stage of the campaign as well.
“When we start this process,” Mr. Peeperkorn said then, “we have to finish this process.”
Polio can strike and spread rapidly, and its emergence in Gaza is a risk for neighboring Egypt and Israel, and potentially beyond. Whether the disease can now be contained is impossible to determine, health experts have said. Israel has begun to offer booster vaccines for soldiers operating in Gaza.
“I’m worried about the virus spreading,” Ms. Touma said, calling it critical that the second stage of the campaign also be completed. “It’s a win-win, not only for the children of Gaza but also for children in Israel.”
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