Gaza polio vaccination program to end this week after immunizing hundreds of thousands of children

The final round of polio vaccinations are set to wrap up this week in Gaza. So far, hundreds of thousands of children have been vaccinated against polio, which re-emerged in the Gaza strip after 25 years. The virus partially paralyzed one baby boy.

Despite the success of the vaccination program, Gazans still face a potential threat from polio.

Part of the reason for that is that in order to be fully protected against polio, two separate doses of the oral polio vaccine need to be administered.

So far, this program has only distributed one dose. The second dose is usually administered by medical personnel four to six weeks after the first one.

The emergency vaccination program was made possible because a pause in the fighting was agreed to by Israel. However, there is no guarantee that will happen again in four to six weeks and a resumption in fighting could disrupt the schedule for the needed second dose.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said the U.N. and the World Health Organization, along with partner agencies, managed to vaccinate 530,000 children against polio during the program.

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Dr. John Kahler is the co-founder of MedGlobal , one of the nonprofit medical groups working to vaccinate children against polio in Gaza. Dr. Kahler has been to Gaza several times since Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7.

"All the babies born after October 7 are, at the minimum, not completely vaccinated. A couple [of groups] were still giving vaccines, or the ministry were still giving vaccines in March, but not nowhere near ... on the regular schedule," Dr. Kahler said. "So, if we're not able to adequately give a second round, then all those kids that have only gotten one have some immunity, but they're not protected, that's for sure."

All of this highlights the fact that a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas so far remains elusive.

On Tuesday, Israel's defense minister said the window is closing on the chance to reach a temporary cease-fire deal of six weeks, which would bring back the hostages held by Hamas. However, Hamas wants a permanent cease-fire.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is traveling to the U.K. and Ukraine this week, told reporters during a news conference in London that 90% of the issues between Israel and Hamas have been resolved.

"We're down to a handful of issues — not even a handful of issues that are hard, but fully resolvable, in our judgment. And as we've said before, when you get down to the last 10%, the last 10 meters, those are, almost by definition, the hardest ground to cover, but we believe that these are fully resolvable," Blinken said. "Right now, we're working intensely with our Egyptian and Qatari counterparts to work together to bridge any remaining gaps. And in the coming time, very soon, we'll put that before the parties and we'll see what they say."

There was an effort underway by the U.S. to present a final cease-fire offer to both sides, but officials have said that is now on hold.

RELATED STORY | WHO says it vaccinated over 187K kids in Gaza for polio during pause in fighting