Polio is on its way again – in Gaza

JVL Introduction

As a child growing up in South Africa in the forties and fifties, one disease was feared even more than cancer. That was polio.

It struck at random, it could paralyse for life. The image of being encarceated in an iron-lung in order to breathe at all hovered over us. The only preventative measures were washing your hands carefully and not going swimming before the first rains of spring (?!).

I well remember the collective sigh of relief with the introduction of the Salk vaccine, and finally the effective elimination of the polio virus worldwide…

Well, it’s back, detected in the effluents of Gaza.

No paralytic cases have been reported yet, but that’s surely a matter of time. The conditions for its mutation and spread are ideal, with people crammed into unhygienic camps, little access to clean water or sanitation and untreated sewage flowing openly between tents.

“Speed and high coverage” with a specifically targeted vaccine is essential – but is a vaccination campaign even possible with a war raging on?

The answer is blindingly obvious.

So Israel vaccinates its soldiers and the war drags on and on…

RK