The goal is to vaccinate 90% of under-10s to prevent a possible epidemic.
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The vaccination truce is holding in Gaza. For the fourth consecutive day, WHO polio vaccination centers are operating and are spared from Israeli bombs. Some 640,000 children under 10 are involved. The goal is to vaccinate 90% of them to prevent a possible epidemic. Because a first case appeared last week while the disease had disappeared from Gaza for 25 years.
It is going well and the atmosphere is almost festive, according to the WHO representative for the Palestinian Territories reached in Gaza by video link. Families are playing the game, like those of Selma, 3 years old. She has just received two cuts in the mouth and her father Mohamad is reassured. “Thank God she is vaccinated now. Vaccination is important for children. It is difficult to find clean water here.”he explains.
Because the sewage system is completely destroyed, which favors the development of the virus, detected this summer in wastewater. Dr. Abu Ghem leads the four teams of doctors responsible for vaccination at Al-Aqsa Hospital: “It’s a place where people are aware of the importance of vaccination. There has been a good turnout since this morning”he says.
“The teams responsible for vaccinating the children started at 9 a.m., it is 1 p.m. and we have vaccinated 300 children, boys and girls.”
Doctor Abu Ghemto franceinfo
For the time being, the Israeli army is strictly respecting the promised humanitarian breaks between 6 a.m. and 2 p.m.. “Do you seriously think that the Israelis who deliberately kill our children care about their health? asks the doctor. They agreed to deliver vaccines to us because they know we don’t have a sewage treatment plant. Our wastewater ends up in the sea and risks contaminating them. “They think of their own interests before thinking of ours” he says.
The vaccination truce is set to last six more days, affecting 340,000 children in southern Gaza and 150,000 in the north.