Gaza has recorded its first polio case in 25 years, the Palestinian Authority “health ministry” said on Friday, according to AFP.
Tests in Jordan confirmed the disease in an unvaccinated 10-month-old from the central Gaza Strip, the Ramallah-based bureau said.
"Doctors suspected the presence of symptoms consistent with polio," the health ministry said. "After conducting the necessary tests in the Jordanian capital, Amman, the infection was confirmed."
The diagnosis came after UN chief Antonio Guterres called for pauses in the Israel-Hamas war to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children.
According to the United Nations, Gaza has not registered a polio case for 25 years, although type 2 poliovirus was detected in samples collected from the territory's wastewater in June.
"Preventing and containing the spread of polio will take a massive, coordinated and urgent effort," Guterres told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, as quoted by AFP.
"I am appealing to all parties to provide concrete assurances right away guaranteeing humanitarian pauses for the campaign," he added.
The World Health Organization and UN children's fund UNICEF said they were planning two seven-day vaccination drives across the Gaza Strip, starting in late August, against type 2 poliovirus (cVDPV2).
"These pauses in fighting would allow children and families to safely reach health facilities and community outreach workers to get to children who cannot access health facilities for polio vaccination," the agencies said in a statement.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)