DEIR EL BALAH: After the Palestinian Health Ministry verified the first case in the enclave on Friday, breaking a 25-year period in which the strip was polio-free, a mother in Gaza fears that her month-old son, Mohammed, may be infected with the disease.
Mohammed, the son of Ghada al Ghandour, began to get skin rashes three days after he was born. She claimed, “He had skin rashes as if he had been burned.” There are no creams available to heal her child, a doctor informed her.
Later, she took him to the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, Deir el Balah, in order to get a diagnosis and treatment. Because of the absence of hygienic conditions and medical resources in Gaza during over ten months of conflict, his mother was concerned that the rash would lead to additional symptoms and infections.
Authorities verify the devastating illness’s first occurrence in 25 years.
The 10-month-old infant who had not received a vaccination was the first known incidence of polio in the city of Deir el Balah, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated in a statement.
Mohammed has also not had a polio vaccination. His mother claimed, “My son missed the first vaccination in his first month.” Dr. Hamid Jafari, a polio specialist with the World Health Organization (WHO), reported that polio was found in sewage in the governorates of Deir el Balah and Khan Younis in Gaza. He added that it was conceivable the virus had been circulating since September.
“An additional danger to children”
Paralysis can result from the highly contagious virus poliomyelitis, which mostly spreads through the fecal-oral route. The virus most commonly affects children under the age of five, particularly young children under two, as immunization schedules have been thrown off due to the fighting.
“There will be a health catastrophe if the occupation (Israeli forces) keeps closing the border crossing and preventing people from getting vaccines,” Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital spokesperson Khalil al Daqran said.
On Sunday, Israel declared that it would help deliver polio vaccines into Gaza, reaching about a million children. In the next weeks, more than 43,000 vials of the vaccine were scheduled to arrive in Israel and be shipped to Gaza, according to a statement from COGAT, the Israeli defense office responsible for coordinating civilian affairs with the Palestinian officials.
It stated that this would provide more than a million children with two rounds of medicines. However, Al Daqran of Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital asserted that a vaccination drive would not be possible without a break in hostilities.
On August 16, the World Health Organization stated that the polio outbreak “represents yet another threat to the children in the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries.” The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates that of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, about half are under the age of 18, and about 15% are young children.
