UAE President allocates funds towards polio vaccine effort in Gaza

Vaccine drive will help 640,000 Gazan children under the age of 10

President Sheikh Mohamed allocated the $5 million to help combat polio in Gaza. Photo: Ministry of Presidential Affairs

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President Sheikh Mohamed has instructed funds to be issued towards the delivery of a critical polio vaccination drive in Gaza, following the re-emergence of the virus in the Palestinian enclave.

The UN campaign will be supported by an allocation of $5 million from the UAE.

The vaccines will be delivered in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, Unicef and UNRWA, and will provide 640,000 Gazan children under the age of 10 with two doses, state news agency Wam reported.

It is hoped the drive will help stop the spread of the virus and prevent a wider regional outbreak.

The campaign will begin on Sunday, September 1, in phases, starting in central Gaza before moving to the south and north of the enclave.

Each phase will run for three days during area-specific humanitarian pauses, to enable children and families to go to health centres and community workers to reach children.

At least 90 per cent vaccination coverage is needed during each round to prevent the spread of polio, experts say, given the overcrowding, displacement and severely disrupted health, water and sanitation systems in Gaza.

Late on Thursday the World Health Organisation announced it had secured “a preliminary commitment for area-specific humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to allow UN health officials to administer polio vaccinations to thousands of children under the age of 10.

About 1.2 million vaccine doses have been delivered to Gaza ahead of the campaign starting on Sunday, a WHO official said on Friday.

About 400,000 additional doses are on the way to the territory, said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories.

Campaign planning began after the virus was detected in Gaza in July and, earlier this month, the WHO confirmed that at least one child has been paralysed by the Type 2 polio variant, the first such case in the territory for 25 years.

The UAE has been at the forefront of humanitarian efforts in Gaza, delivering more than 40,000 tonnes of urgent supplies, including food, medical aid and shelter materials.

A field hospital has been established in southern Gaza, along with a floating hospital at the Egyptian port of Al Arish, which have collectively provided medical care to more than 27,000 sick and wounded Palestinians.

A further initiative seeks to provide treatment for more than 1,000 Palestinian children and 1,000 cancer patients in UAE hospitals. In addition, six water desalination plants have been established in Rafah, Egypt, with a capacity of six million litres per day, supplying water to more than 600,000 Gazans.

Security fears will remain a major concern throughout this campaign. The team “always fears an attack”, Juliette Touma of UNRWA told The National earlier on Friday, adding that no one and nowhere is safe in Gaza.

A successful delivery of the vaccinations would be a win for every child, she said, even in Israel. “Polio is such a vicious virus that doesn't know borders or checkpoints or lines of fire or lines of control, so we've got to reach every child as soon as possible.”