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Long tamed polio virus emerged in Gaza Strip

MedExpress Team

Irena Piekarska

Published July 26, 2024 08:00

The World Health Organization announced in 1999 that the polio virus that causes polio has been effectively eradicated. However, the latest reports from the Gaza Strip raise legitimate concerns, as they confirm that the dangerous epidemic is making a comeback.
Long tamed polio virus emerged in Gaza Strip - Header image
Fot. Thinkstock/Getty Images

The health catastrophe in the Gaza Strip has become a reality. Tragic sanitary conditions, lack of drinking water and food, and non-existent hospital infrastructure are making it increasingly difficult to control the spread of disease. In recent days, the French Press Agency (AFP) confirmed that after nine months of warfare, a sewage pumping station in the center of the zone has stopped working due to lack of fuel. As a result, in no way unfiltered sewage is flowing between the refugees' tents, exposing those staying there to a health disaster. Rats are rampant on piles of rubble, and lice, scabies and smallpox are ubiquitous. This situation affects more than 2.4 million residents of the Gaza Strip.

UNICEF, along with other humanitarian organizations, is monitoring the epidemiological situation in the region. Sewage samples taken recently showed the presence of the polio virus. These results were also confirmed by the Israeli Ministry of Health. Based on laboratory tests, it is concluded that it is undoubtedly the polio virus type 2. The poliovirus, which causes polio, is extremely contagious. Transmitted via the fecal-oral route, it has exceptionally favorable conditions in the Gaza Strip to trigger an epidemic state. The virus multiplies in the intestines and mainly attacks children under the age of five. Infection with the virus produces a variety of clinical symptoms, most of which are asymptomatic infections, but about 1% of patients develop a paralyzed form. Severe consequences of the infection include damage to the nervous system, paresis and paralysis. Unfortunately, there is no treatment to combat the disease. The only effective method is prophylactic vaccination, for which there are poor chances in Gaza at the moment. It is difficult to talk about the isolation of confirmed cases in the existing conditions of the war zone.

The difficulty in controlling the polio virus also lies in the long incubation period. The incubation period, or the period from contact with the virus to the development of symptoms, averages 7-14 days. But the period of greatest infectivity occurs from a few days before the first symptoms of the disease appear and up to 3-4 weeks after their onset. Patients excrete viruses in their feces for up to 6 weeks. The asymptomatic presence of the virus in the body makes it difficult to effectively break the epidemic chain. The standard measures of information, education and hygiene, isolation of the sick are out of the question for obvious reasons. Doctors and humanitarian organizations are concerned that the polio virus present in the Gaza Strip poses a potential threat to other countries. Especially those where vaccination levels are not high enough for economic reasons. In order to minimize the risk, international cooperation, increased preventive measures such as isolating people leaving the Gaza Strip and vaccinating them are now necessary. Given the migration of the population, the speed of movement, the inadequate level of vaccination, the risk of the virus spreading around the world becomes really high and requires testing of people with symptoms indicative of polio infection and careful monitoring of the situation.

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