"The Prescription Is Ceasefire": Israeli Public Health Leaders Sound Alarm over Polio in Gaza

The Israeli military says it has begun vaccinating its soldiers against poliovirus after the paralytic disease was found in several wastewater samples in Gaza. The World Health Organization warns the risk of further spread remains high while Gaza’s children go unvaccinated during Israel’s assault, which has devastated Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. Public health officials have called it a major setback for global efforts to eradicate polio. “Right now, fortunately, we don’t know of any polio patients in Gaza. But we anticipate that it will come,” says Dorit Nitzan, director of the masters program in emergency medicine at Ben-Gurion University and former regional emergency director for the World Health Organization’s European office. “The prescription is ceasefire, vaccines and good public health conditions.”