The Hamas government’s health ministry in the Gaza Strip declared the Palestinian territory a “polio epidemic zone,” accusing the Israeli military of destroying health facilities there, which it said led to a resurgence of the virus.
The CPV2 strain of the virus was detected in sewage samples taken in the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip and in the central governorates of the Palestinian territory, the ministry said in a statement.
The presence of the virus “poses a threat to the health of the people of the Gaza Strip and neighboring countries, and a setback for the global polio eradication program,” he added, without specifying whether any cases of polio had been detected in humans in the small territory.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had expressed serious concerns about a possible polio epidemic in the Gaza Strip, which is facing a serious health crisis after almost ten months of war between Hamas and the Israeli army.
On 16 July, the Global Polio Laboratory Network isolated vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) from six wastewater samples in Deir al-Balah (central) and Khan Younis.
“The Israeli aggression that deprived the population of usable water, the destruction of health infrastructure, the accumulation of tons of garbage and the lack of food security” led to the re-emergence of the virus, Hamas said.
“The presence of vaccine-derived poliovirus in sewage most likely means that it exists somewhere in people,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters.
“But again, about 75 percent of people infected with polio have no symptoms. This means that the virus is most likely present in the population, but it does not necessarily mean that there is an outbreak,” he added. “A vaccine distribution campaign throughout the Gaza Strip is necessary,” Lindmeier stressed.