A 10-month-old baby in war-shattered Gaza has been paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years, the World Health Organization said on Friday, with UN agencies appealing for urgent vaccinations of every baby. The type 2 virus (cVDPV2), while not inherently more dangerous than types 1 and 3, has been responsible for most outbreaks in recent years, especially in areas with low vaccination rates. UN agencies have called for Israel and Gaza's dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas to agree to a seven-day humanitarian pause in their 10-month-old war to allow vaccination campaigns to proceed in the territory.
WATCH l Lab results can yield false polio reports, Gaza doctor says: Gaza health officials warn of another potential risk — polio 24 days ago Duration 1:03 Omar Al-Zawaidi, a father of two, went to the hospital in hopes of getting his children vaccinated against polio, a highly infectious virus that is spread through the fecal-oral route. A doctor working in Gaza, meanwhile, warns that actually detecting the virus will prove challenging as cases can be asymptomatic. "Polio does not distinguish between Palestinian and Israeli children," the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday in a post on X.
"Delaying a humanitarian pause will increase the risk of spread among children," Philippe Lazzarini added. The baby, who has lost movement in his lower left leg, is currently in stable condition, WHO Director-Ge.