Desperate to protect their children, Gazans turn out for polio booster shots


Health workers in central Gaza say the first week of a campaign to give children a second round of polio vaccines has been a success despite desperate humanitarian conditions in the enclave, as Israel refuses to confirm a humanitarian ceasefire to allow vaccination efforts to continue in the north.

When health authorities announced Sunday that the polio vaccination booster would be available the next day in central Gaza, word travelled fast.

On Monday morning, “the clinic opened at 8am, but people were coming at 7am,” said Nahed Abu Iyada, senior health programme officer with humanitarian organisation CARE, which runs a health centre in the coastal city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

“Since we finished the first round, the families kept asking about the second round,” she said. “They were insisting to know when the second round would begin.”

The first round of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza was conducted last month and was widely regarded as a success. Around 560,000 children under 10 years old got their first shot in September, according to the WHO.

But just a few weeks later, conditions in the besieged Palestinian enclave had worsened.

Authorities forecast that the polio booster campaign in Gaza would be more challenging than the first round.

But the people of Gaza, battered and devastated after more than a year of a calamitous war and heavy Israeli bombardments, showed out in force.

“It was successful”, Iyada said. “In the last three days, I saw happiness in the eyes of the families when they came and gave their children the vaccines.”

Read more on FRANCE 24 English

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