The Palestinian Health Ministry in Ramallah has officially documented the first polio case in Gaza Strip.
The announcement was made on Friday by the Ministry, stating that the affected individual is a 10-month-old infant from Deir al-Balah in the central region who had not been vaccinated.
Tests conducted in Amman, Jordan have apparently confirmed the diagnosis, as reported by the ministry.
In efforts to combat the situation, UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, had urged for a cessation of hostilities in the battered coastal strip to facilitate the vaccination of hundreds of thousands of children against polio.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the UN children’s agency UNICEF are advocating for a seven-day ceasefire specifically for conducting the vaccination campaign.
Following the detection of polioviruses in the Gaza Strip’s sewage in July, the UN has planned comprehensive polio vaccination drives.
Two rounds of vaccinations are scheduled for the end of August and September to safeguard over 640,000 children under 10 years of age against the virus, as announced by the WHO in Geneva.
The UN health agency had previously disclosed that three children in Gaza Strip are showing symptoms of acute paralysis consistent with polio.
Polio, a highly contagious infectious disease, poses the risk of permanent paralysis and fatality, especially among young children, with transmission often occurring through contaminated water sources.