WHO has issued the warning of spread of polio and infectious disease in Gaza, Highlights of the noon briefing by Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General – 23 August 2024

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GAZA/HUMANITARIAN

The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning that disrupted water and sanitation systems in Gaza – including at hospitals – are increasing the risk of infectious diseases.

WHO has procured more than $400,000 worth of infection prevention and control supplies, including chlorine tablets, hygiene products, and gloves. These items have already been delivered to five hospitals, with plans to reach two others in the coming weeks.

However, we keep sounding the alarm that repeated evacuation orders continue to severely disrupt aid operations in Gaza.

Meanwhile, UN partners say the amount of food assistance that has entered southern Gaza in July was one of the lowest recorded in the past 10 months. They warn that active hostilities, damaged roads, access constraints, and a lack of public order and safety have led to critical food shortages.

Children are paying the heaviest price – with poor diet and the decimation of health-care services and water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure raising the risks of malnutrition and disease.

UN partners who are working on the nutrition issue say the number of children in northern Gaza who were diagnosed with acute malnutrition soared by over 300 per cent last month compared to May – and by more than 150 per cent in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Without unfettered humanitarian access that allows a major scale-up of support, hunger and malnutrition will only worsen.

The World Food Programme (WFP) says that, as of a week ago, the agency had reached some 370,000 people with partial food parcels and wheat flour this month. However, distribution in Rafah is unfortunately rare due to the ongoing fighting.

WFP also distributed more than 4.4 million hot meals across Gaza so far this month, and that was done through about 60 community kitchens.Those meals reached an estimated 78,000 people, most of them in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah area.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also reports that in July, the percentage of humanitarian movements denied by Israeli authorities more than doubled from seven to 15 per cent, severely hampering efforts to quickly reach people with critical support. This is despite the overall number of humanitarian missions coordinated by the Israeli authorities increasing from 414 in June to more than 540 in July.

Meanwhile, OCHA says as of yesterday, 43 per cent of nearly 150 planned humanitarian assistance missions to northern Gaza were facilitated by Israeli authorities this month. The rest were either denied, impeded or cancelled due to various reasons, including security, logistical and operational reasons. And in southern Gaza, less than half of the 280 coordinated aid movements have been facilitated by the IDF in August.

GAZA/POLIO

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed yesterday that a 10-month-old baby in Deir al Balah has polio. It’s the first case in 25 years. This was already flagged by the Ministry of Health in Gaza earlier, but was confirmed by WHO yesterday.

Given the risk of polio spreading in Gaza and the wider region, WHO, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as well as many other partners, are preparing two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns for children under the age of 10. The first round will provide vaccinations for over 600,000 children and the second round will commence four weeks after the first.

WHO is sending more than a million polio vaccines to Gaza, which will be administered in the coming weeks.

UNRWA health teams are committed to lead this upcoming vaccination against polio. UNRWA says they insist on vaccinating children in both its healthcare facilities and mobile health points within its shelters. Additionally, UNRWA mobile teams will visit communities, tent to tent, to vaccinate children unable to actually go to health facilities.

UN agencies request all parties to the conflict to implement a humanitarian pause in Gaza for seven days to provide this urgent healthcare to protect children in Gaza from polio.

These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination. Without humanitarian pause, the delivery of this campaign will be that much more challenging.

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