WHO Warns Of High Risk Of Polio Virus Spreading Across Gaza Strip Due To Dire Sanitation Situation

Reuters (7/23, Tétrault-Farber) reports, “The World Health Organization said on Tuesday there was a high risk of the polio virus spreading across the Gaza Strip and beyond its borders due to the dire health and sanitation situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.” Ayadil Saparbekov, the “team lead for health emergencies at WHO in Gaza and the West Bank, said circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 had been isolated from environmental samples from sewage in Gaza.” Saparbekov “said WHO and UNICEF workers were scheduled to arrive in Gaza on Thursday to collect human stool samples as part of a risk assessment related to the discovery of the virus.”