UN to launch polio vaccine campaign for over 640,000 Gazan children: chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday said that the United Nations plans to launch a two-phase polio vaccine campaign in Gaza for more than 640,000 children under the age of 10, and called for a “polio pause” in the war-torn region.

Speaking to reporters at the UN headquarters in New York, Guterres said that in recent weeks, poliovirus has been detected in wastewater samples in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, meaning that the virus, which can cause paralysis, is now circulating, with hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza at risk.