Humanitarian groups and public health leaders around the world are extremely worried that polio may be spreading in Gaza, after tests found the virus in wastewater samples. The war-ravaged enclave is already afflicted by poor sanitation, a crumbling health care system and plunging vaccination rates — so there's little hope that it would be able to handle an outbreak of the highly contagious disease. “It would be a disaster,” said Dr.
Mithqal Abutaha, program manager of Project HOPE, a global health nongovernmental organization that runs clinics in the areas of Gaza where polio has been discovered in sewage. While no human cases of polio have been detected, it’s unclear whether doctors in Gaza have the resources to test for it. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative , part of the World Health Organization, said that 16 out of the 36 hospitals in Gaza are “partially functional” and that less than half of its primary care facilities are in use.
“The health care infrastructure is ruined,” Abutaha said. “There is no capability enough to control this outbreak.” Tests on wastewater samples taken at two sites in Gaza, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, were positive for circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, Ayadil Saparbekov, team lead for health emergencies at WHO in Gaza and the West Bank, said during a briefing Tuesday.
“WHO considers there to be a high risk” that the virus will spread “within Gaza and internationally if this outbreak is not respond.