Poliomyelitis, commonly referred to as the polio virus, is a devastating disease most common in children below the age of five that targets the brainstem and nerves across the spinal cord. While there is a mild form with a chance of recovery after a few days of vague symptoms, severe forms can cause paralysis, illness and even death. This, for many people across the United States, is irrelevant. In fact, it has not been a globally prevalent disease since the late 1900s. Modern medicine brought along a vaccine that all but eradicated the poliovirus from its deadly status of the 1950s—making it preventable today. (Preventable, not treatable).
It had been about a quarter-century since polio was last reported in Gaza. While countries in the Middle East are reportedly more susceptible to the disease in general due to lower vaccination rates, it has not been a problem in a long time. The first known case of polio in Gaza is from a 10-month-old boy named Abdel-Rahman Abu El-Jedian, a Palestinian baby born into the Israel-Hamas war. He had started to crawl early, described as energetic and bright, until one day when those attributes were reversed. Suddenly, the boy would not crawl, sit, stand; he would not move. Gaza health professionals had warned about a polio outbreak for months in advance, though there had not been any confirmed cases until now. Before the war, children were largely vaccinated against the virus, but Adbel-Rahmen had just been born a little before the October 7th attack; early vaccinations had all but stopped and hospitals came under attack soon after.
That achievement is now being tested once again as more polio cases pop up. But what could possibly allow for such a re-emergence? For a virus that has been considered irrelevant for decades—a crowning achievement in public health development—that had been conquered by science in a milestone indicative of a healthier future; how could it just come back? The specific strain of poliovirus in Gaza is thought to be vaccine derived, which, according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is “a strain related to the weakened live poliovirus contained in oral polio vaccine (OPV).” It can only occur when the live weakened virus used in the oral polio vaccine is shed in feces. Considering the dire state of the Gaza Strip and the drop of vaccination rates from 99 percent to 86 percent as a result of the war, it is not surprising that there has been an outbreak (Washington Post). A variant of the disease had been found in Gaza’s wastewater, which allowed it to affect kids that were not properly vaccinated against it. The circulation of the disease allowed it to mutate into a more severe and dangerous virus with the capability to cause the aforementioned symptoms.
As a result of the sudden outbreak, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a daily eight-hour pause to allow for a two-round vaccination campaign that targets 640,000 children. On September 4, good progress was reported, but several officials stated that there must be a permanent ceasefire; it is nearly impossible for professionals to provide aid in the war-ravaged and limited times. Even more dire is that, while they have successfully administered the vaccine, for it to be effective, professionals need to return after four weeks to give a second dose. The control and containment of this outbreak have been made infinitely more difficult because of the lack of documentation and the harsh living conditions of the Palestinian people. Despite attempts and successes in taking safety measures against the disease, the conditions of Gaza will only continue to perpetuate the spread of illness, polio or not. This poses the question: how will similar outbreaks be prevented in the future?
