Polio vaccine

The announcement of the World Health Organization to send more than one million polio vaccines to war-torn Gaza after the virus was detected in the Palestinian territory's wastewater is highly praiseworthy (“WHO says sending over 1 million polio vaccines to Gaza,” Aug.8, Gulf Today website).

According to the report, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said health workers need free movement within Gaza to administer the vaccines, saying that a ceasefire, or at least a few "days of tranquillity", was essential to protect Gaza's children with routine vaccinations. "The detection of polio in wastewater in Gaza is a tell-tale sign that the virus has been circulating in the community, putting unvaccinated children at risk." No clinical cases have yet been detected.

The World Health Organization has also been campaigning for fundraising through world-known celebrities and sending humanitarian aid for vulnerable people of war-torn Gaza.

The world should appreciate the World Health Organization’s initiative to send more than one million polio vaccines to war-torn Gaza.

I hope the authorities in the Gaza Strip — keeping in mind that the polio can lead to a person being unable to move certain limbs, also called paralysis — will allow the World Health Organization to send polio vaccines to

Gaza and make sure that the aid will reach the needy people there.

Shams Ahmed,

By email