WHO Launches Campaign to Vaccinate Over 40,000 Children in Gaza During Ceasefire
WHO Launches Campaign to Vaccinate Over 40,000 Children in Gaza During Ceasefire
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The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday a major vaccination drive in the Gaza Strip, aiming to immunise more than 40,000 children against a suite of serious diseases during the recent ceasefire.
According to Arab News, in the first phase, which began on 9 November, WHO and its partners have already vaccinated over 10,000 children under the age of three, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Phase one, now extended through Saturday, will protect children against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, polio, rotavirus, and pneumonia, the WHO reported. Future phases are planned in cooperation with UNICEF, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), and Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Phase two and three are slated to begin in December and January, according to WHO officials.
Tedros expressed optimism, noting that “the ceasefire continues to hold, as it allows the WHO and its partners to intensify essential health services across Gaza and support the necessary re-equipment and reconstruction of its devastated health system.”
The vaccination campaign comes amid a fragile truce brokered on October 10 between Israel and Hamas, endorsed by the UN Security Council. Though the ceasefire has held, the territory has been ravaged by over two years of intense conflict: according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, more than 69,500 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war, with a large proportion of victims being women and children.
