Cairo: The Gaza Ministry of Health has launched polio vaccinations in northern Gaza despite obstacles.
A campaign to vaccinate the last 200,000 children against polio in northern Gaza began on Tuesday, but health and aid officials said the operation was complicated by access restrictions, evacuation orders and fuel shortages.
The campaign in northern Gaza, the region hardest hit by Israel's 11-month military offensive against Hamas militants, follows the vaccination of 446,000 Palestinian children in central and southern Gaza earlier this month. Despite other challenges, medical staff have begun administering vaccines in the northern region despite the need for fuel, said Dr. Musa Abed said.
Sam Ross, deputy director of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, said the vaccination centers are in areas that are militarily active, hard to reach and isolated if things go wrong.
On Monday, Israel intercepted a convoy containing vehicles and fuel for a vaccination campaign and a WHO team trying to get to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, forcing the mission to be aborted, the WHO's Tarik Jasarevic told reporters.
A campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 children in Gaza began on September 1 after the World Health Organization confirmed last month that a baby had been partially paralyzed by type 2 polio. This is the first virus outbreak in the region in 25 years.
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