Israel has also begun offering polio vaccinations to its troops fighting in Gaza after remnants of the virus were found in test samples from the region.
Ayadil Saparbekov, WHO team lead for health emergencies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, said circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 had been isolated from environmental samples from sewage.
“There is a high risk of spreading of the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus in Gaza, not only because of the detection but because of the very dire situation with the water sanitation,” he told reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.
“It may also spill over internationally, at a very high point.”
He added that workers from WHO and the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, were scheduled to arrive in Gaza on Thursday to collect human stool samples as part of a risk assessment.
Saparbekov stated he hoped this would be completed before the end of the week and allow recommendations to be issued, “including the need for a mass vaccination campaign as well as what kind of vaccine should be used and what the age group of the population that will need to be vaccinated”.
Since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October, there have been repeated warnings about the possible outbreak of viral epidemics as a result of the destruction of health, water and sewage infrastructure.
Saparbekov stressed he was “extremely worried about an outbreak happening in Gaza”.
“And this is not only polio, different outbreaks of communicable diseases,” he explained.
