Polio vaccine rollout ‘a huge undertaking’, says British doctor in Gaza

A British doctor helping manage the polio vaccine rollout for children in Gaza has said the campaign is a “huge undertaking” amid the devastation to local infrastructure and prevalence of disease.

Dr Hareen de Silva, 38, told the PA news agency the rollout has gone well so far at a healthcare facility he is managing in Zawaida, near the city of Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian health authorities and United Nations agencies began a large-scale campaign of vaccinations against polio in Gaza on Saturday, after the territory recently reported its first polio case in 25 years.

The campaign aims to reach about 640,000 children, with authorities hoping to vaccinate children in central Gaza until Wednesday before moving to northern and southern areas.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to limited pauses in the fighting to facilitate the campaign.

Dr de Silva, who is deployed in Gaza with UK-Med but is usually based in London, said the conditions in Gaza are “devastating” and make controlling disease challenging.

“It’s a huge undertaking because what we need is 95% vaccine coverage, but then you have to take into account that there’s destruction of water, sanitation, hygiene facilities and infrastructure,” he said.

He said damage to sanitation facilities and the crowding of tents can encourage disease to spread quickly.

“It’s a huge undertaking, because it’s not just giving the vaccines, it’s also the public health approach of improving water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure at the same time, which unfortunately is not happening at the moment, and it needs to go hand in hand, but you can only be hopeful.

“If polio takes hold in Gaza, unfortunately, it may take years for it to become eradicated again, and it’s just another thing added to cause risk of death and serious harm to children here in Gaza.”

About 1,500 children under the age of 10 have been vaccinated so far at Dr de Silva’s facility in central Gaza which consists of eight tents.

He said: “We have our community engagement teams who go out into the community to collect children, inform parents, etc, on the importance of having the vaccine.”

A local partner, Save Youth Future Society, took circus performers to the facility to entertain the children, which led more youngsters to get vaccinated.

“We had lots of children playing and having fun, having their faces painted, and then we had a little bit more footfall than we would have expected if we didn’t have the circus performers today,” Dr de Silva said.

“It was great to see all these children smile and laugh. I’ve been here on two deployments now, and I haven’t seen a child smile or laugh that much since being here, which is humbling and heartbreaking and warming at the same time.”

UK-Med trained its staff to understand the signs and symptoms of polio and have been conducting sessions to raise awareness in the community of the importance of vaccination.

Although this deployment is Dr de Silva’s first with UK-Med, the GP has previously worked in Gaza and said that this time, there is a greater prevalence of disease and the area is more crowded.

Skin conditions such as impetigo and scabies are “much worse” and “now there are tents on the beach everywhere, there’s just people crammed into a smaller space”.

He added: “It’s heartbreaking to see the destitution you see when you’re driving up and you see many, many, many children on the road and you’re unsure if they’re accompanied by adults.”

The vaccinations at the healthcare facility will continue until Thursday, at which point the team will begin administering vaccines at the larger field hospital in Al Mawasi, Rafah.