WHO on Gaza Polio Vaccination Campaign: ‘Massive Success’

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed the ongoing polio vaccination campaign in Gaza as a “massive success” on Friday, after half a million children in the territory received a first dose, despite the war.

As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, the Israeli government, together with international health agencies, launched a massive polio vaccination drive to save the children of Gaza from death or disability.

The Agence France-Presse (via Times of Israel) noted:

The World Health Organization chief hails the success of the first phase of a giant polio vaccination campaign in war-ravaged Gaza after more than 560,000 children received a first dose.

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After the first confirmed polio case in 25 years, a massive vaccination effort began on September 1 targeting at least 90 percent of children under 10, aided by localized “humanitarian pauses” in fighting.
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The first phase of the campaign, which first brought vaccines to children in central Gaza, then the south, and finally to the hardest-to-reach north of the territory, wrapped up Thursday.

The vaccination drive will continue in four weeks, as children will need a second dose of the vaccine for full immunity.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) discovered polio in water supplies in Gaza in July. Soldiers were offered vaccines on a voluntary basis. The scale and intensity of the vaccination campaign, which took place despite the lack of a formal ceasefire, also runs against charges by Israel’s enemies that it is seeking “genocide” in its war effort against Hamas.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.