the humanitarian pause for vaccination “remains very insufficient”, deplores humanitarian doctor Raphaël Pitti

There “humanitarian pause” starting Sunday, announced by the UN in the Gaza Strip to allow large-scale polio vaccination, “remains very insufficient”warned on Saturday August 31 on franceinfo Professor Raphaël Pitti, humanitarian doctor, anesthesiologist-resuscitator, specialist in emergency medicine in war zones.

“It’s good that we managed to get these pauses. It would have been much better to have a permanent ceasefire because the situation is dramatic from a health perspective.”explains Raphaël Pitti. He denounces “a dramatic situation of a humanitarian catastrophe of very large scale.” The doctor reminds that “It’s been ten months since children under ten have been vaccinated”. He points “the significant risk of a polio epidemic.”

“The health situation is terribly disastrous and it deeply affects children”insists the humanitarian who would have liked “at least seven days of total peace that allows us to organize ourselves”. He specifies that “700 medical teams have been set up in the different areas so that we can vaccinate very quickly.” Vaccination is carried out “orally”, what is not “the best thing about subcutaneous vaccination”, recognizes Raphael Pitti. “But in any case, it will help eradicate and prevent the polio epidemic.”

“Given the health conditions, that is to say the destruction of hospital structures, if a polio epidemic were to appear, many children would risk very serious muscular paralysis, but above all respiratory paralysis which would have led to death in the absence of resuscitation”adds the humanitarian doctor. He pleads for “a permanent and immediate ceasefire that allows aid to be delivered to this population that is in dire need”.