Between fear and hope, Gazans parents line up in their thousands to protect their children from polio

If the UN-led polio vaccination campaign currently underway in Gaza is to be successful in halting the spread of a virus that has resurfaced in the Strip after 25 years, 90 per cent of children under the age of 10 need to be inoculated. UN News correspondent Ziad Taleb has been speaking to some of the concerned parents.

Wael al-Haj Mohammed’s daughter is a child of war. Born the day after the outbreak of the  conflict in Gaza between Hamas and Israel forces that began last October, Mr. Mohammed has struggled to get medical care.

She is one of the thousands of children benefiting from the mass polio vaccination campaign, which began on the first of September in the central area of Gaza.

Mr. Mohammed’s daughter is receiving oral vaccinations against type II polio at an UNRWA clinic in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza as part of the first phase of the campaign.

Nourhan Shamalakh, a young mother of two young sons and an infant daughter, left the simple tents they call home, in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, to a health centre where her children could receive polio vaccinations. To get there, they travelled by donkey cart. She said that her fears of the disease outweighed her concerns at having to travel to the centre.

Lining up at the Deir al-Balah health centre, which us run by UNRWA, Mohammed Rajab waited for his baby daughter to receive her vaccination, which is administered orally. "Given the conditions we live in and the diseases that are prevalent, vaccination is now of great importance to the survival of our children,” he said. “God willing, in these days of war, peace will prevail for all."

The parents who have come to the health centre are well aware of the importance of vaccinations.

"The issue of polio in Gaza is serious," says Muhammad Abu Jayab. "For decades the disease did not exist in Gaza. And now, because of the war, it has returned. This is a threat to hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza, including my own. This vaccination is a big step despite the harsh humanitarian and security landscape in Gaza."

Vaccination campaign going to plan

Inside the health centre, the Agency's spokesperson, Louise Wateridge, followed the vaccination process as hundreds of families arrived to wait their turn.

"Our staff here is ready to vaccinate as many children as possible over the next three days in this first phase of the vaccination campaign," Wateridge said. "Doses are kept in individual cooler boxes to keep them from the heat of the day. So far, the calm seems to prevail in the Gaza Strip. The humanitarian truce is holding so far, and that's what we need to implement this campaign, and we'll see how things go in the coming days. So far, everything is going according to plan. Children are arriving, families are here, vaccinations are going well."

All photos: UN News/Ziad Taleb